I have long been something of a climate-change sceptic, but my views in recent years have shifted. For me, the most convincing evidence that something worrying is going on lies right here in the Arctic.
America has long raised political and cultural cognitive dissonance to an art form. We are capable of living with enormous inequality and injustice while convincing ourselves that we are in fact moving toward what Churchill called the "broad, sun-lit uplands. "
The way God has been thought of for thousands of years is no longer convincing; if anything is dead, it can only be the traditional thought of God.
Life is always going to be stranger than fiction, because fiction has to be convincing, and life doesn't.
Most people's major life changes don't come from reading an article in the newspaper; they come from reading longer-form essays or thoughtful books, which are much more convincing and detailed.
Sooner I'd try to change history than turn political, than try convincing others to write letters or to vote or to march or to do something they didn't already feel like doing.
The man that believes will obey; failure to obey is convincing proof that there is no true faith present. To attempt the impossible God must give faith or there will be none, and He gives faith to the obedient heart only.
Now," said Halt, "all I have to do is work out a way of beating these horse-riding devils. " Erak grinned at him. "That should be child's play," he said. "The hard part will be convincing Ragnak about it.
Real life doesn't have to be convincing, but fiction does.
I think the fact that I'm so well known to be gay makes it very difficult to have a convincing relationship with a woman on screen. It wouldn't be at all difficult for me to kiss a woman - I'll kiss a frog if you like.
. . . nothing in the world is harder than convincing someone of an unfamiliar truth.
If one cannot invent a really convincing lie, it is often better to stick to the truth.
It's always my goal to be more mature-sounding, more convincing, but also more experimental, and more challenging for myself. If it's not a little bit harder every time I make a new track, then I'm being lazy.
A rationalist, as I use the word, is a man who attempts to reach decisions by argument and perhaps, in certain cases, by compromise, rather than by violence. He is a man who would rather be unsuccessful in convincing another man by argument than successful in crushing him by force, by intimidation and threats, or even by persuasive propaganda.
I quite like convincing the person the broom is their favourite actress. They are talking to a broom and they think it's Julia Roberts and they snog it. In Reading one guy took the broom into the wings and was getting amorous with it. I had a struggle to get it back. He was exhausted when he came out.
A trembling in the bones may carry a more convincing testimony than the dry documented deductions of the brain.
If you need a certain vitality you can only supply it yourself, or there comes a point, anyway, when no one's actions but your own seem dramatically convincing and justifiable in the plot that the number of your days concocts.
Conduct is more convincing than language.
The difference between Martin Sheen and George W. Bush is Martin Sheen is actually convincing when he acts like he's president.
Disappointment over nationalistic authoritarian regimes may have contributed to the fact that today religion offers a new and subjectively more convincing language for old political orientations.