“Persuasion, indeed, is a kind of force. It consists in showing a person the consequences of his actions. It is, in a word, force applied through the mind.”

“Persuasion is often more effectual than force.”

Aesop (-620–-564 BC) ancient Greek storyteller

“A heart can no more be forced to love than a stomach can be forced to digest food by persuasion.”

Alfred Nobel (1833–1896) Swedish chemist, innovator, and armaments manufacturer

“Accept of things, having procured them by persuasion, not by force.”

Bias of Priene (-600–-530 BC) ancient Greek philosopher, one of the Seven Sages

“The triumph of persuasion over force is the sign of a civilized society.”

Mark Skousen (1947) American economist, investment analyst, newsletter editor, college professor and author

“The person who has many friends, will be forced by necessity to create some imaginary enemies inside his mind.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

“…by action on man all known force may be measured. Indeed, few men of science measured force in any other way. After once admitting that a straight line was the shortest distance between two points, no serious mathematician cared to deny anything that suited his convenience, and rejected no symbol, proved or unproveable, that helped him to accomplish work. The symbol was force, as a compass-needle or a triangle was force.”

Henry Adams (1838–1918) journalist, historian, academic, novelist

“One speaks of dictators ruling by "force". But what has enabled dictatorial governments to possess force? The only means by which a man can become a dictator is by getting at the public mind. The politician does not become dictator by the strength of his own muscles. He must persuade others, millions of others, to use their muscles in a certain way.
The German National Socialists began as a party of ten persons. And it would have remained a party of ten persons had not its promoters been able to persuade — not force — others. Ten persons had no force as against the power of the German nation. The potential power of that party of ten persons consisted simply in its potential power to reach the public mind. Without that popular appeal it could never have come into being. And if, and when, it loses that popular appeal, it will cease to be.”

Norman Angell (1872–1967) British politician

“Weak is he who permits his thoughts to control his actions; strong is he who forces his actions to control his thoughts.”

Og Mandino (1923–1996) American author

“We thus have a kind of see-saw: first, pure persuasion leading to the conversion of a minority; then force exerted to secure that the rest of the community shall be exposed to the right propaganda; and finally a genuine belief on the part of the great majority, which makes the use of force again unnecessary.”

Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) logician, one of the first analytic philosophers and political activist