The danger is not lest the soul should doubt whether there is any bread, but lest, by a lie, it should persuade itself that it is not hungry.
Simone Weil

The main problem is that for a boycott to be effective, you must first persuade thousands - maybe even millions of others - to go along, which is a lot of work and usually not successful.
L. Neil Smith

The passions are the only orators which always persuade.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld

The shepherd always tries to persuade the sheep that their interests and his own are the same.
Henri B. Stendhal

Their term project consists of a fieldwork collection of folklore that they create by interviewing family members, friends, or anyone they can manage to persuade to serve as an informant.
Alan Dundes

Theology is never any help; it is searching in a dark cellar at midnight for a black cat that isn't there. Theologians can persuade themselves of anything.
Robert A. Heinlein

There is only one real sin and that is to persuade oneself that the second best is anything but second best.
Doris Lessing

They can rule the world while they can persuade us our pain belongs in some order is death by famine worse than death by suicide, than a life of famine and suicide...?
Adrienne Rich

We confess our little faults to persuade people that we have no large ones.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld

We must seek to persuade member states and institutions that better regulation in Europe does not mean cutting health and safety in the workplace, nor does it mean dismantling social standards.
John Hutton

We only confess our little faults to persuade people that we have no big ones.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld

We've got to rebuild human hearts - and persuade people that hope isn't just possible, but essential.
Tony Snow

What you're doing is putting into professional play the way that you relate to other people, the way that you analyze and relate to a written text, the way that you would persuade anybody to do anything. It has to do with listening, with humility and a sense of yourself.
Trevor Nunn

When evangelical leaders can persuade the president to be concerned about what's happening in Sudan, or sex trafficking around the world, or HIV-AIDS, that's a very good thing. I am completely supportive of that.
Jim Wallis

When you have nothing important or interesting to say, don't let anyone persuade you to say it.
H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

You have to be able to enthral and persuade at the same time.
Riccardo Muti

You know what it's like to persuade a pigheaded child to do something they don't want to. If they hear the same suggestion from someone else, they'll go right off and do it.
Mary Wesley