Quotes from Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion

“A well-known principle of human behavior says that when we ask someone to do us a favor we will be more successful if we provide a reason. People simply like to have reasons for what they do.”
― Robert B. Cialdini, quote from Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion

“Embarrassment is a villain to be crushed.”
― Robert B. Cialdini, quote from Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion

“Where all think alike, no one thinks very much. —WALTER LIPPMANN”
― Robert B. Cialdini, quote from Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion

“Often we don’t realize that our attitude toward something has been influenced by the number of times we have been exposed to it in the past.”
― Robert B. Cialdini, quote from Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion

“There is a natural human tendency to dislike a person who brings us unpleasant information, even when that person did not cause the bad news. The simple association with it is enough to stimulate our dislike.”
― Robert B. Cialdini, quote from Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion

“persons who go through a great deal of trouble or pain to attain something tend to value it more highly than persons who attain the same thing with a minimum of effort.”
― Robert B. Cialdini, quote from Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion

“we all fool ourselves from time to time in order to keep our thoughts and beliefs consistent with what we have already done or decided”
― Robert B. Cialdini, quote from Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion

“people seem to be more motivated by the thought of losing something than by the thought of gaining something of equal value.”
― Robert B. Cialdini, quote from Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion

“The way to love anything is to realize that it might be lost.”
― Robert B. Cialdini, quote from Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion

“Excuse me, I have five pages. May I use the Xerox machine because I have to make some copies? The result was that once again nearly all (93 percent) agreed, even though no real reason, no new information, was added to justify their compliance. Just as the “cheep-cheep” sound of turkey chicks triggered an automatic mothering response from maternal turkeys—even when it emanated from a stuffed polecat—so, too, did the word “because” trigger an automatic compliance response”
― Robert B. Cialdini, quote from Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion

“Freedoms once granted will not be relinquished without a fight.”
― Robert B. Cialdini, quote from Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion

“The idea of potential loss plays a large role in human decision making. In fact, people seem to be more motivated by the thought of losing something than by the thought of gaining something of equal value.”
― Robert B. Cialdini, quote from Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion

“The truly gifted negotiator, then, is one whose initial position is exaggerated enough to allow for a series of concessions that will yield a desirable final offer from the opponent, yet is not so outlandish as to be seen as illegitimate from the start.”
― Robert B. Cialdini, quote from Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion

“Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler. —ALBERT EINSTEIN”
― Robert B. Cialdini, quote from Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion

“When our freedom to have something is limited, the item becomes less available, and we experience an increased desire for it. However, we rarely recognize that psychological reactance has caused us to want the item more; all we know is that we want it. Still, we need to make sense of our desire for the item, so we begin to assign it positive qualities to justify the desire.”
― Robert B. Cialdini, quote from Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion

“The customers, mostly well-to-do vacationers with little knowledge of turquoise, were using a standard principle—a stereotype—to guide their buying: “expensive = good.”
― Robert B. Cialdini, quote from Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion

“All things being equal, you root for your own sex, your own culture, your own locality…and what you want to prove is that you are better than the other person. Whomever you root for represents you; and when he wins, you win.”88”
― Robert B. Cialdini, quote from Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion

“Be as precise as possible about your need for aid.”
― Robert B. Cialdini, quote from Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion

“Apparently we have such an automatically positive reaction to compliments that we can fall victim to someone who uses them in an obvious attempt to win our favor.”
― Robert B. Cialdini, quote from Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion

“As a general rule, whenever the dust settles and we find losers looking and speaking like winners (and vice versa), we should be especially wary of the conditions that kicked up the dust—in”
― Robert B. Cialdini, quote from Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion

“good-looking people are aware that other people’s positive evaluations of them are not based on their actual traits and abilities but are often caused by an attractiveness “halo”
― Robert B. Cialdini, quote from Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion

“Our best evidence of what people truly feel and believe comes less from their words than from their deeds.”
― Robert B. Cialdini, quote from Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion

“Abraham’s willingness to plunge a dagger through the heart of his young son because God, without any explanation, ordered it. We learn in this story that the correctness of an action was not judged by such considerations as apparent senselessness, harmfulness, injustice, or usual moral standards, but by the mere command of a higher authority.”
― Robert B. Cialdini, quote from Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion

“In general, when we are unsure of ourselves, when the situation is unclear or ambiguous, when uncertainty reigns, we are most likely to look to and accept the actions of others as correct.”
― Robert B. Cialdini, quote from Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion

“It is easier to resist at the beginning than at the end. —LEONARDO DA VINCI”
― Robert B. Cialdini, quote from Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion

“Since 95 percent of the people are imitators and only 5 percent initiators, people are persuaded more by the actions of others than by any proof we can offer.”
― Robert B. Cialdini, quote from Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion

“There is no expedient to which a man will not resort to avoid the real labor of thinking.”
― Robert B. Cialdini, quote from Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion

“we all fool ourselves from time to time in order to keep our thoughts and beliefs consistent with what we have already done or decided.”
― Robert B. Cialdini, quote from Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion

“once a person’s self-image is altered, all sorts of subtle advantages become available to someone who wants to exploit that new image.”
― Robert B. Cialdini, quote from Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion

“We like people who are similar to us. This fact seems to hold true whether the similarity is in the area of opinions, personality traits, background, or life-style.”
― Robert B. Cialdini, quote from Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion

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Popular quotes

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BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.

We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.

Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.