Convincing Yourself Quotes

You spend your whole life convincing yourself you are a chapter worth following, and then someone comes along and doesn't want to read the ending, and suddenly the whole story falls apart ~ Courtney Peppernell

Maybe convincing yourself that you could never transition is a defense mechanism that enabled you to survive high school, family, work - but like most defense mechanisms, it wasn't conscious, and like most defense mechanisms, it became a pattern you weren't aware of, and then, like most defense mechanisms, at some point it stopped making your life easier and started making your life harder. ~ Imogen Binnie

Speaking as someone who bought the party line for far too long, you would be amazed what you can believe if you keep convincing yourself the press, the libs, the universities - hell, everyone but a few on the religious fringe and big business - are out to get you. I was lucky - I started to snap out of this a couple of years ago and hopefully will now apply to both major parties the same skepticism and cynicism I had in the past reserved for Democrats. ~ John Cole

If you truly desire money so keenly that your desire is an obsession, you will have no difficulty in convincing yourself that you will acquire it. The object is to want money, and to be so determined to have it that you convince yourself that you will have it. ~ Napoleon Hill

You just told me you liked me how I am." "I do," Elend said. "But I'd like you however you were, Vin. I love you. The question is, how do you like yourself?" That gave her pause. "Clothing doesn't really change a man," Elend said. "But it changes how others react to him. Tindwyl's words. I think ... I think the trick is convincing yourself that you deserve the reactions you get. You can wear the court's dresses, Vin, but make them your own. Don't worry that you aren't giving people what they want. Give them who you are, and let that be enough." He paused, smiling. "It was for me. ~ Brandon Sanderson

Convincing yourself doesn't win an argument. ~ Robert Half

But there is something about the process of convincing yourself that you don't care that just confirms even more that you do. ~ Tarryn Fisher

Women are better at acting then men. Why? Because we have to be. If successfully convincing someone bigger than you are of something he doesn't want to know is a survival skill, this is how women have survived through the millennia. ~ Meryl Streep

Apologys for self-evident Truths can never have any effect on those who have so little Sense as to deny them. They are the Foundation of all Reasoning, and the only just Bottom on which Men can proceed in convincing one another of the Truth: and by consequence whoever is capable of denying them, is not in a condition to be informed. ~ Anthony Collins

For us physicists believe the separation between past, present, and future is only an illusion, although a convincing one. ~ Albert Einstein

Seventy percent of US companies now use open-plan offices and hot desking in the hope that these free-form physical structures will provoke free-form thinking. This architectural determinism isn't entirely convincing - there's plenty of evidence that people find open workspaces noisy, distracting, and impersonal. Walking through several such workspaces recently, I couldn't help but notice how hard everyone was working to simulate privacy. Plugged into headphones, surrounded by stacks of books and temporary dividers, defensiveness was more evident than openness. Architecture alone won't change mindsets and tearing down physical walls won't demolish the mental silos that trap thinking. ~ Margaret Heffernan

The irony was that my real enemy had been there all along right in front of me. Smiling crookedly and convincing me we were friends. Trying to seduce me for the thrill of the chase. Chastising me for not trusting him that first year in the tower stairs at the Academy… Telling me he loved me. And then tossing me aside the second I jeopardized his dreams. I wasn't what he had wanted all these years. I'd merely been a diversion in his pursuit of the crown.
I never should have trusted a prince. ~ Rachel E. Carter

It was one thing convincing the world something was true, but it was bad when I started to believe it in my bones. There was enough deception going on these days without adding my own mind to the list of those not to be trusted. ~ Helen Hiorns

Hey I basically agree with you. I believe in what I can see, touch, eat, drink and spend. Everything else is bull."
April nodded. "You are so right, Christopher. I mean,you are so forceful and all that, you just get me hot. You really do, and we're going to die anyway, so just take me now." She scooted towards Christopher and lowered her voice to a husky whisper. "You think I'm kidding but I'm not. I want you here and now."
She was just convincing enough that Christopher made a sort of move to put his arm around her. She pushed away, laughing slyly.
"Ah, so you just believe in what you can see, huh? Looks to me like you were ready to believe in a miracle. ~ Katherine Applegate

I recalled something I'd read a long time ago about Satan. When he appeared, it wouldn't be as a demon but as an ordinary-looking guy with a convincing message of peace. ~ Steven Ramirez

To make a book convincing, it's less important that the right tree be in the right place than that the characters are emotionally real. ~ Anthony Marra

I need to convince John to convince Jim to convince Jason that I don't need convincing. ~ Jarod Kintz

Where so many hours have been spent in convincing myself that I am right, is there not some reason to fear I may be wrong? ~ Jane Austen

I was an agnostic until I realized that I had to choose between God and fate. The idea that humanity and nature are the result of fate was not convincing at all. I find the presence of God everywhere. ~ Andrea Bocelli

I don't argue things being spiritual vs scientific, because I've never met anyone who knows enough about either to be convincing
including myself. ~ S. Kelley Harrell

As commonly understood, creationism involves belief in an earth formed only about ten thousand years ago, an interpretation of the Bible that is still very popular. For the record, I have no reason to doubt that the universe is the billions of years old that physicists say it is. Further, I find the idea of common descent (that all organisms share a common ancestor) fairly convincing, and have no particular reason to doubt it. ~ Michael Behe

Vaishali felt flattered. "But my mother proved that no injustice was done to the girl."
"You should not worry about that. Those in power will use all means to prove their point. They'll make it look real, appealing, convincing. And that's what your mother did."
"Do you think so?" asked Vaishali eagerly.
Regina smiled as she ticked mentally the first box: Gullible.
Regina continued the conversation. "Going to the US?"
"Yes, my leave is over. I am going back to the university. In spite of whatever I did to them, my parents have agreed to pay for my overseas education."
"What is so great about it? After all, you are their daughter and it is their responsibility to give you the right education. Indians are unnecessarily sentimental about it," said Regina.
"Perhaps you are right…"
As Vaishali paused for a moment, Regina ticked a couple of more boxes: Ungrateful. Disdain for Indian values.
In the next few minutes, Regina ticked a few other boxes mentally: Insolent. Obstinate. Unreasonable. Unrepentant.
Regina concluded that she had identified the right candidate for the role of an activist. ~ Hariharan Iyer

Treat a boy like a fool and he'll act like a fool, I say, but there's some folks need convincing. ~ Stephen Vincent Benet

Let us, above all, be clear that, without a convincing program of debt relief to start the new millennium, our objective of halving world poverty by 2015 will be only a pipe dream. ~ Kofi Annan

I was described as a dreamer, a fantasist, even as the village idiot. I didn't care. What I cared about was convincing people to allow me to go on with my work. ~ Ada Yonath

It was not yet known how the Revolution would develop. But Upton supposed that the arguments of the philosophical anarchists were most convincing: society would fragmentise into independent, self-governing communities of mutually congenial individuals, requiring no police, no army, no guardians of morality, and no government. The old Deity being dead and dethroned, Humankind would come at last into power. ~ Joyce Carol Oates

The problem of meaning today is the problem of how the diverse and superficially self-contradictory experiences of men can be put into a consistent picture that will provide contemporary man with a convincing basis from which to live and to act. ~ Carroll Quigley

True power wasn't convincing a cowardly lot to be afraid of something that people were already afraid of; it was giving them a complex that made them run screaming when a fluffy kitten came bounding into the room. ~ Seanan McGuire

A love story, at least a convincing one, requires three elements - the lover, the beloved, and the adventures they have together. ~ Jane Smiley

Driven by the hunger for fame and originality, we are like these monkeys, thinking that we are so clever in discovering things and convincing our fellow humans to see what we see, think what we think, driven by ambition to be the savior, the clever one, the seer of all. We have all kinds of small ambitions, such as impressing a girl, or big ambitions, such as landing on Mars. And ~ Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse

This world can seem marvellously convincing until death collapses the illusion and evicts us from our hiding place. What will happen to us then if we have no clue of any deeper reality? ~ Sogyal Rinpoche

Remember that a good football novel has to have the same ingredients as any other good novel: drama, convincing and interesting characters, a strong story-line, and some kind of magic in the writing. ~ Mal Peet

We were lovers,' he says dramatically. 'I was very convincing.' Livia giggles and reaches up to stroke his hair. Hank pretends not to notice Livia's hand as it crawls across his cheek, and it turns into a game. Her fingers pet his lips as he mumbles through them, 'What part do you want? ~ Rachel M. Wilson

Until the administration can articulate a coherent and convincing policy for closing Guantanamo, it should remain open. ~ Jason Chaffetz

The creature who lives inside my brain suggested I do it," I offered tentatively. "It was very convincing. ~ Joss Sheldon

Murder is an inherently evil act, no matter what the circumstances, no matter how convincing the rationalizations. ~ Bentley Little

By 2029, computers will have emotional intelligence and be convincing as people. ~ Ray Kurzweil

No matter what, I will always choose practical FX over digital ones. Blood spray pumps and squibs go a long way in convincing the audience that the carnage on screen happens right there, in a manner that digital have not achieved. ~ Timo Tjahjanto

These repetitive words and phrases are merely methods of convincing the subconscious mind. ~ Claude M. Bristol

Rule one of reading other people's stories is that whenever you say 'well that's not convincing' the author tells you that's the bit that wasn't made up. This is because real life is under no obligation to be convincing. ~ Neil Gaiman

My goal was just to tell the unlikely story in a way that would feel as convincing as possible. ~ Karen Thompson Walker

I like to play characters that are convincing, that aren't just straightforward and nice. ~ Clive Owen

Ultimately the most challenging thing, always, is to just be convincing ~ Guy Pearce

Convincing Elinor, that whatever other unpardonable folly might bring him to Cleveland, he was not brought there by intoxication. ~ Jane Austen

Growing up is a lot like that, I think. Convincing the world you've got it all figured out. Even when we know it's a lie. We're all still trying. ~ Thought Catalog

Hoarding is holding onto what I can't keep and all the while convincing myself that I can. And in the end, what I'm really hoarding is my need to believe something at the expense of my existence. ~ Craig D. Lounsbrough

Many people struggle with losing weight and then regaining it. But there is no convincing evidence that the effort to lose weight actually promotes more weight gain in the long run. ~ Francis Collins

I've been telling anyone willing to listen that banks have a tendency to sit on time bombs while convincing themselves that they are conservative and nonvolatile. ~ Nassim Nicholas Taleb

The private citizen today has come to feel rather like a deaf spectator in the back row, who ought to keep his mind on the mystery off there, but cannot quite manage to keep awake. He knows he is somehow affected by what is going on. Rules and regulations continually, taxes annually and wars occasionally remind him that he is being swept along by great drifts of circumstance. Yet these public affairs are in no convincing way his affairs. They are for the most part invisible. They are managed, if they are managed at all, at distant centers, from behind the scenes, by unnamed powers. ~ Walter Lippmann

An atheist chaplain would be the perfect vehicle for convincing wounded warriors that they should end their lives because there's nothing in the future and there's nothing now, so why not just save money and kill themselves. ~ Gordon Klingenschmitt

The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he was evil. ~ Edmund Carver

People have been on earth in our present form for only about 100,000 years, and in so many ways we're still ironing out our kinks. These turtles we've been traveling with, they outrank us in longevity, having earned three more zeros than we. They've got one hundred million years of success on their resume, and they've learned something about how to survive in the world. And this, I think, is part of it: they have settled upon peaceful career paths, with a stable rhythm. If humans could survive another one hundred million years, I expect we would no longer find ourselves riding bulls. It's not so much that I think animals have rights; it's more that I believe humans have hearts and minds- though I've yet to see consistent, convincing proof of either. Turtles may seem to lack sense, but they don't do senseless things. They're not terribly energetic, yet they do not waste energy… turtles cannot consider what might happen yet nothing turtles do threatens anyone's future. Turtles don't think about the next generation, but they risk and provide all they can to ensure that there will be one. Meanwhile, we profess to love our own offspring above all else, yet above all else it is they from whom we daily steal. We cannot learn to be more like turtles, but from turtles we could learn to be more human. That is the wisdom carried within one hundred million years of survival. What turtles could learn from us, I can't quite imagine. ~ Carl Safina