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If you wish to win a man over to your ideas, first make him your friend.
Abraham Lincoln
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Interpretation

What this quote means

Building a friendship is essential to persuade someone to accept your ideas.

Abraham Lincoln's quote emphasizes the importance of friendship in influencing others. It suggests that to effectively persuade someone, creating a bond of trust and camaraderie is crucial, as people are more receptive to ideas when they feel a personal connection with the person presenting them.

Themes

FriendshipPersuasionInfluenceTrustIdeas

In practice

Example use cases

This quote could be used in a speech about the importance of relationships in leadership.

More from Abraham Lincoln

I am like a man so busy in letting rooms in one end of his house, that he can't stop to put out the fire that is burning the other.
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Sir, my concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God's side, for God is always right.
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Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.
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How many legs does a dog have if you call the tail a leg? Four. Calling a tail a leg doesn't make it a leg.
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For it has been said, all that a man hath will he give for his life; and while all contribute of their substance the soldier puts his life at stake, and often yields it up in his country's cause. The highest merit, then is due to the soldier.
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And having thus chosen our course, without guile, and with pure purpose, let us renew our trust in God, and go forward without fear, and with manly hearts.
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Treat a friend as a person who may someday become your enemy; an enemy as a person who may someday become your friend.
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Everyone calls himself a friend, but only a fool relies on it; nothing is commoner than the name, nothing rarer than the thing.
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