Top 105 Quotes & Sayings by Frank Luntz
Explore popular quotes and sayings by an American politician Frank Luntz.
Last updated on September 17, 2024.
One of the things that you have trouble with politicians, particularly in Washington, is when you get mad at them and you can't touch them; you can't punch them; you can't yell at them.
So often corporate America, business America, are the worst communicators, because all they understand are facts, and they cannot tell a story. They know how to explain their quarterly results, but they don't know how to explain what they mean.
We decide based on how people look; we decide based on how people sound; we decide based on how people are dressed. We decide based on their passion.
Preserving parks and open spaces is a winner because it doesn't need to be explained to everyday Americans.
The Republican National Committee hired me, and they hired me because they wanted someone who could look members straight in the eye and tell them the truth.
When I started in this business, everybody said the Democrats were the better communicators because they sounded like social workers, and Republicans were awful because they sounded like morticians. In some cases. they actually dressed like morticians.
Words can sometimes be used to confuse, but it's up to the practitioners of the study of language to apply them for good and not for evil. It is just like fire; fire can heat your house or burn it down.
People like me have to have the discipline only to work for clients, corporations, political people, products, services, networks that we believe in and we want to see succeed.
There's a lot of money with a lot of big law firms that have a tremendous amount at stake by getting the right language to convince the right jury that my client is either innocent or that the opposition is guilty.
The language of America changed with the election of Bill Clinton, because with all due respect to my friends on the Republican side, Bill Clinton is the best communicator of the last 50 years. He felt your pain.
It's all emotion. But there's nothing wrong with emotion. When we are in love, we are not rational; we are emotional. When we are on vacation, we are not rational; we are emotional.
There are words that work, that are meant to explain and educate on policies that work, on products that work, on services that work. I'm not going to ever try to sell a lemon. I don't do that.
The principles behind explaining and educating the product or the elected official is similar, even though the actual execution of it is very, very different.
If you're a good numbers person, you're a bad language person.
The advantage of working for a corporation is that it has only one message, because a product or a service doesn't speak; it's just there, and you can advertise it.
I've done reasonably well over the last 10 years because I took the strategy of language and politics and applied it to the corporate world, which has never been done before.
I don't understand why people whose entire lives or their corporate success depends on communication, and yet they are led on occasion by CEOs who cannot talk their way out of a paper bag and don't care to.
I have seen how effective language attached to policies that are mainstream and delivered by people who are passionate and effective can change the course of history.
Ideology and communication more often than not run into each other rather than complement each other. Principle and communication work together. Ideology and communication often work apart.
We as Americans and as humans have very selective hearing and very selective memory. We only hear what we want to hear and disregard the rest.
Politics is gut; commercials are gut.
There are people still in the Republican Party that I believe practice the communication of anger, of disappointment, of regret, of pain, of sorrow, of suffering. That's not what the American people want to hear.
How I say it has as much of an impact on what people think of me as what I say.
It is acceptable to bring someone to tears if it explains to them in an emotional way why a product, a service, or a candidate is the right person, is the right thing to do.
In fact, in more cases than not, when we are rational, we're actually unhappy. Emotion is good; passion is good. Being into what we're into, provided that it's a healthy pursuit, it's a good thing.
The way you communicate an idea is different than the way you communicate a product.
We as Americans assume that big companies are bad, and big power companies are even worse.
What matters most in politics is personality. It's not issues; it's not image. It's who you are and what you represent.
Eighty percent of our life is emotion, and only 20 percent is intellect. I am much more interested in how you feel than how you think. I can change how you think, but how you feel is something deeper and stronger, and it's something that's inside you.
My job as a pollster is to understand what really matters.
The fundamental problem for Republicans when it comes to the environment is that whatever you say is viewed through the prism of suspicion.
A compelling story, even if factually inaccurate, can be more emotionally compelling than a dry recitation of the truth.
The challenge in working in politics, particularly if you're working for a political party, is that everyone's a messenger.
Sound science must be our guide in choosing which problems to tackle and how to approach them.
Traditional market researchers are cold and calculating and scientific.
There's a problem with political polling in that you have so much pressure to do what your client wants you to do and say what your client wants you to say. I've never felt that pressure. I am independent of the political parties.
Some people call it global warming; some people call it climate change. What is the difference?
Republicans use think tanks to come up with a lot of their messages. The think tanks are the single worst, most undisciplined example of communication I've ever seen.
Nobody wants to hear about process. They want to hear about results. They want to be inspired. They want to aspire to something. And so often in our communication, we will explain why - sorry, we will explain how but not why.
To Americans, Washington is a giant cesspool. It's no wonder almost half of Americans (47%) now agree with the statement 'I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore.' It's us (the people) versus them (the politicians), and it doesn't matter what primary color you wear [...] I was involved in the 1994 elections, and I will never forget the arrogance of the Democrats back then, and how they refused to accept the electoral reality facing them. It is no different today.
It's something that people who read my materials have asked me in the past. If you don't have principles - the last chapter of the book ["Win"] is all about winning with principles. It's all about applying words to good things, good people, good efforts. Without that inherent accuracy, then even the best words will still fail.
Writing a book is the most difficult, anxiety-prone aspect of my life because the words that I put on paper are very serious to me.
[Barack] Obama has a grasp of language and the presentation of language, particularly in times of crisis. And he did this over the race issue. He did this early on in his administration, when the country was polarized. That was unprecedented.
I do a lot of work in travel and tourism, and I think this story is in the book. This woman is in a hammock, and she's got the beach below her and the sky above her, and the ocean beyond her. She's relaxing. She's got a drink in her hand and a book. Every woman sees this picture and says, I want to be in that hammock. Every guy sees the picture and says, I want to be in that hammock with that woman. It works for everybody.
FedEx is another company that's passionate. When it absolutely, positively has to get there is such a great, aspirational phrase. And FedEx used it for almost a decade to communicate the passion of delivering a package. The more passionate you are, the more successful you are.
It's all emotion. But there's nothing wrong with emotion. When we are in love, we are not rational; we are emotional. When we are on vacation, we are not rational; we are emotional. When we are happy, we are not [rational]. In fact, in more cases than not, when we are rational, we're actually unhappy. Emotion is good; passion is good. Being into what we're into, provided that it's a healthy pursuit, it's a good thing.
Anything that causes you to doubt, to raise either objections or just concerns about it - and they always put the information right at the bottom of the screen so you can't really read it - every time you see a company do that, the ad becomes less effective. The communication becomes less effective.
People want to be inspired. They want to aspire to something. ... You can have the best product, the best service, the best argument in a debate. But without the effective words you still lose. In the end you need good principles and good language if you are to succeed.
You cannot lie ever, because a lie destroys the credibility of the product, and credibility is more important than anything. Credibility's even more important than clarity.
Winners know what makes people tick by effectively tapping into our fears and aspirations. By listening very carefully and then repeating almost word-for-word exactly what they've heard, winners know how to articulate compelling needs—and products to satisfy those needs—that people didn't even know they wanted.
The adjectives that are in the book ["Win"] - passion, persuasion, persistence, perfection, prioritization, being people-centered - none of them are as important as principles. Without principles, the language will fail.
George W. Bush - who I'm sure that a lot of people, when I say this, will not be happy about it - but Bush had a determination, and had a very clearly defined set of principles. You knew exactly where he stood.
We will be far more effective as communicators when we acknowledge our mistakes, and then we try to make them up.
We are so divided, and we recognize that we're divided, that we're looking for ways to come together.
The Tucson speech [of Barack Obama] was brilliant, and I'm so angry at Republicans for jumping on him because you have to give credit. Part of being successful is to give credit to people who you may not disagree with when they do well.
The Republicans are mad at Donald Trump, and the Democrats are mad at Hillary Clinton. And the Bernie Sanders people are mad at everybody. When has that ever happened?
Whether or not you liked George W. Bush, there was no doubt about what position he was going to take, and that's what endeared him to a significant segment of American society.
It's not what you say, it's what people hear.
I tell this joke about Barack Obama is the best communicator of our generation: The guy reads a teleprompter better than any Hollywood actor. John McCain, his opponent - Stevie Wonder reads a teleprompter better than John McCain.
"Which side are you on" asks a question. That's one of the most powerful, persuasive ways to make a case, to say something, to advertise something or to communicate it. Don't make a statement. Ask a question.
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