WIST Quotations

Neustadt, Richard -- Presidential Power: The Politics of Leadership, 3.3 (1960)

Dave — Thu, 20 Aug 2015 13:09:07 +0000

Persuasion deals in the coin of self-interest.

Richard Neustadt (1919-2003) American political scientist
Presidential Power: The Politics of Leadership, 3.3 (1960)

Smith, Adam -- The Wealth of Nations, 1.2 (1776)

Dave — Thu, 13 Aug 2015 16:54:44 +0000

We address ourselves, not to their humanity but to their self-love, and never talk to them of our necessities but of their advantages.

Adam Smith (1723-1790) Scottish economist
The Wealth of Nations, 1.2 (1776)

Lewin, Ronald -- Ultra Goes to War, ch. 10 (1978)

Dave — Tue, 11 Aug 2015 15:58:38 +0000

Nearly always, the best deception trades on the enemy’s own preconceptions. If he already believes what you want him to believe, you have merely to confirm his own ideas rather than to undertake the more difficult task of inserting new ones into his mind.

Ronald Lewin (1914-1984) British military historian, radio producer publishing editor
Ultra Goes to War, ch. 10 (1978)

Pliny the Younger -- Letters, Book 1, Letter 20 [tr. Radice (1963)]

Dave — Thu, 30 Jul 2015 12:59:58 +0000

Everyone is prejudiced in favor his own powers of discernment, and will always find an argument most convincing if it leads to the conclusion he has reached for himself; everyone must then be given something he can grasp and recognize as his own idea.

Pliny the Younger (c. 61-c. 113) Roman politician, writer [Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus]
Letters, Book 1, Letter 20 [tr. Radice (1963)]

Cicero, Marcus Tullius -- (Attributed)

Dave — Thu, 16 Jul 2015 13:32:30 +0000

There is no better way to convince others than first to convince oneself.

Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BC) Roman orator, statesman, philosopher
(Attributed)
(Source)

In Martin Luther, Table Talk (1566) [tr. Smith & Gallinger (1915)].

Woolf, Virginia -- A Room of One’s Own, ch. 1 (1929)

Dave — Mon, 07 Jul 2014 16:03:10 +0000

When a subject is highly controversial — and any question about sex is that — one cannot hope to tell the truth. One can only show how one came to hold whatever opinion one does hold. One can only give one’s audience the chance of drawing their own conclusions as they observe the limitations, the prejudices, the idiosyncrasies of the speaker.

Virginia Woolf (1882-1941) English modernist writer [b. Adeline Virginia Stephen]
A Room of One’s Own, ch. 1 (1929)

Disraeli, Benjamin -- (Attributed)

Dave — Fri, 04 Apr 2014 12:10:05 +0000

I am bound to furnish my antagonists with arguments, but not with comprehension.

Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881) English politician and author
(Attributed)

An frequently used saying of his. Quoted in Wilfrid Meynell, Benjamin Disraeli: An Unconventional Biography (1903). Also attributed to Samuel Johnson.

Story, Joseph -- “Advice to a Young Lawyer”, The American Jurist and Law Magazine, Vol. 5 (1831)

Dave — Thu, 13 Feb 2014 14:29:24 +0000

Be brief, be pointed, let your matter stand
Lucid in order, solid and at hand;
Spend not your words on trifles but condense;
Strike with the mass of thought, not drops of sense;
Press to close with vigor, once begun,
And leave, (how hard the task!) leave off, when done.

Joseph Story (1779-1845) American lawyer, jurist, Supreme Court Justice (1811-1845)
“Advice to a Young Lawyer”, The American Jurist and Law Magazine, Vol. 5 (1831)