To move men, appeal to motives that move them is about understanding your audience’s core drivers, not your own. It’s the secret to persuasion that actually works, whether you’re selling, leading, or just trying to get your team on board. You have to step into their world and speak their language.
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Meaning
Stop pushing your agenda. Start pulling their levers.
Explanation
Look, I’ve seen so many brilliant people fail at this. They have a great product, a fantastic idea, a compelling vision. And they present it with all the reasons *they* think it’s great. But that’s the trap. The real art is to forget your reasons and uncover *theirs*. What keeps them up at night? What are they secretly proud of? What do they fear losing? That’s the gold. When you connect your message to *their* existing motivations—their desire for security, recognition, belonging, growth—that’s when you stop talking *at* people and start moving *with* them. It’s a fundamental shift from broadcaster to translator.
Quote Summary
Reading Level48
Aesthetic Score60
Origin & Factcheck
This comes straight from the 1915 classic, The Art of Public Speaking by Dale Carnegie and Joseph Berg Esenwein. It’s often misattributed to Carnegie’s later work, How to Win Friends and Influence People, but the core principle was right there in his first major book, published in the United States. It’s the foundation everything else was built on.
Attribution Summary
Author Bio
Dale Carnegie(1888), an American writer received worldwide recognition for his influential books on relationship, leadership, and public speaking. His books and courses focus on human relations, and self confidence as the foundation for success. Among his timeless classics, the Dale Carnegie book list includes How to Win Friends and Influence People is the most influential which inspires millions even today for professional growth.
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Where is this quotation located?
| Quotation | To move men, appeal to motives that move them |
| Book Details | Publication Year/Date: 1915 (first edition); ISBN/Unique Identifier: 9781420933431 (common Digireads reprint); Last edition. Number of pages: common reprints ~300–480 pages (varies by printing) |
| Where is it? | Part V The Psychology of Persuasion, Unverified – Edition 1915, page range ~224–242 |
Context
In the book, this isn’t some abstract philosophical point. It’s a practical, almost tactical piece of advice nestled in a chapter about how to prepare a speech. They’re telling you, before you write a single word, you’d better understand the “human nature” of your audience. It was written for a time when public speaking was a primary form of influence, and the principle is arguably even more critical today in our noisy, distracted world.
Usage Examples
Let me give you a couple of ways I’ve applied this.
- For a Sales Team: Don’t just list product features to a prospect. Find out if their motive is looking like a hero to their boss (appeal to that) or avoiding a catastrophic system failure (appeal to that fear of loss).
- For a Manager: You can’t just tell your team to “work harder.” But if you know their motive is professional growth, you frame the challenging project as the key experience they need for that next promotion.
- For a Marketer: Your SaaS tool isn’t about “efficiency.” For a startup founder, the motive is survival and speed—frame it as a way to outmaneuver competitors. For a large enterprise, the motive is risk mitigation—frame it as stability and security.
This is for anyone who needs to persuade another human being. So, basically, everyone.
To whom it appeals?
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Motivation Score58
Popularity Score72
Shareability Score58
FAQ
Question: Isn’t this just manipulation?
Answer: It’s a fine line, but a real one. Manipulation is about getting what *you* want, often by deception. This is about finding a genuine, mutually beneficial alignment. It’s service, not selfishness.
Question: How do I figure out what someone’s motives are?
Answer: You listen. You ask “why” questions. You observe what they get excited about and what they complain about. It’s detective work, not mind-reading.
Question: What if their motives are negative, like greed or laziness?
Answer: You still have to work with the raw material you’re given. The principle doesn’t judge the motive; it just says you must acknowledge it to be effective. You can channel a desire for more (greed) into ambition for the team, or a desire for ease (laziness) into a drive for smarter, more efficient processes.
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