WOO HOO! I persuaded you to continue on our ‘How to Persuade’ series!
Imagine if Eve had better persuasive abilities. Perhaps she could have convinced the serpent that it should eat the apple, not Eve (by the way, do you think it was a male or female serpent?). Then what would have happened?
What’s up with the word ‘seem’ in this quote? Does it mean you can just fake listening? Can you just pretend to be open to persuasion or do you really need to be open to it?
I think it’s obvious that at least the author of the quote (Lord Chesterfield, not sure what he was Lord over though) thinks you can just appear to be open to it. The good think about appearing to be open to persuasion is that you eventually actually do become open to it. That is a good thing. It doesn’t mean you are going to fall for anything, or accept something blindly. It simply means you are willing to have a conversation with an open mind.
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Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman, who does indeed usually think he is right.
Quote by Lord Chesterfield, who, it turns out, was Lord over the County of Nottingham way back in the 1600s. Alas, his Earldom became extinct when his descendent forgot to petition for a writ of summons to the House of Lords, died, and that was that.