Persuasion
idea · 2 works · 2 mentions · 3 anchored passages
also in the atlas: Persuasion the deity
Persuasion, the only real mistress of mankind · converts · most eloquent · our opinion · persuasion
in the texts
Hecuba
The personified power of persuasive speech, explicitly named and lamented by Hecuba as the one true mistress of human affairs that people fail to properly cultivate.
why do we mortals toil, as we must, and seek out all other sciences, but Persuasion, the only real mistress of mankind, we take no further pains to master completely by offering to pay for the knowledge, so that any man could convince his fellows as he pleased and gain his point at once?
Cyropaedia
The rhetorical and political means by which Cyrus’ companions are to keep allies in the campaign.
but just as, when we are called upon to fight, the one who conquers the greatest number has the glory of being considered the most valorous, so also when we are called upon to use persuasion, he that converts the greatest number to our opinion would justly be accounted at once the most eloquent and the most efficient.
Now, if the allies we have gained would only stay on with us, we should be able to accomplish much more both by force, when occasion calls for it, and by persuasion, when that is needed;
Do not, however, aim at displaying to us the arguments that you will address to each one of them, but set to work with the feeling that those who are persuaded by any one of you will show what they are by what they do.