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The Art of Always Being Right: The 38 Subtle Ways of Persuation
Beware who you give this book to.' Financial Times 'I recommend that you keep this delightful essay at your side.' Observer 'Dryly witty essay' Alain de Botton, Sunday Telegraph We all sit through meetings with that one person who seems to be able to persuade everyone. What is their secret? Are they more gifted than we are? Or is it just that they are very skilled in the art of persuation? That is exactly what it is. They are people who use subtle tricks to convince other people to agree with them. Based on a lifetime of observing opinion-forming by two authors, The Art of Always Being Right shows you the 38 ways that will convince people that you are right. Master them all and success is guaranteed.
63 pages, ebook
First published October 8, 2012
72 people are currently reading
488 people want to read
About the author
A.C. Grayling
94 books658 followersAnthony Clifford "A. C." Grayling is a British philosopher. In 2011 he founded and became the first Master of New College of the Humanities, an independent undergraduate college in London. Until June 2011, he was Professor of Philosophy at Birkbeck, University of London, where he taught from 1991. He is also a supernumerary fellow of St Anne's College, Oxford.
He is a director and contributor at Prospect Magazine, as well as a Vice President of the British Humanist Association. His main academic interests lie in epistemology, metaphysics and philosophical logic. He has described himself as "a man of the left" and is associated in Britain with the new atheism movement, and is sometimes described as the 'Fifth Horseman of New Atheism'. He appears in the British media discussing philosophy.
He is a director and contributor at Prospect Magazine, as well as a Vice President of the British Humanist Association. His main academic interests lie in epistemology, metaphysics and philosophical logic. He has described himself as "a man of the left" and is associated in Britain with the new atheism movement, and is sometimes described as the 'Fifth Horseman of New Atheism'. He appears in the British media discussing philosophy.
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
February 10, 2017
Clickbait title. It's really about ways of winning an argument.
This is really by Schopenhauer, rather than Grayling, who just provides the preface and introduction. That was a disappointment to me as I love Grayling's books.
Many of the ways are not so subtle, many are "dishonest" in that they are about winning an argument, not about arriving at the truth, often by rhetorical trickery. However, the point is not to learn how to do that (I hope that's not your game), but to learn how to see that people are doing that and how to counter it.
Lots of "intentionally left blank" pages between chapters, which are short, so this is a quick read, though I wouldn't read more than one or two at once.
This is really by Schopenhauer, rather than Grayling, who just provides the preface and introduction. That was a disappointment to me as I love Grayling's books.
Many of the ways are not so subtle, many are "dishonest" in that they are about winning an argument, not about arriving at the truth, often by rhetorical trickery. However, the point is not to learn how to do that (I hope that's not your game), but to learn how to see that people are doing that and how to counter it.
Lots of "intentionally left blank" pages between chapters, which are short, so this is a quick read, though I wouldn't read more than one or two at once.
February 9, 2018
A good book on teaching you the tricks people play in debates. So in addition to the lessons giving you insight into how to detect false arguments, it also gives a few tricks yourself to use if you want to dish it back. This book is a good read besides other books on logic and reasoning, don't sleep on it.
June 14, 2025
En raske read
July 14, 2018
This book is so tongue in cheek - superficially it's a treatise on dirty tactics for arguing with someone, but it's actually a book about how to recognise when those tactics are being used against you and bring the argument back to the matter at hand. Very light read.
January 14, 2020
I would call this a self-defense book for debates and discussions, a good - but not great - reading material.
August 24, 2025
One and a half stars might be more fair. The premise is decent enough - a primer on the tricks that people pull in any type of debate or argument, dressed up as a how-to book to instruct us on pulling those tricks. As such it's a book that might serve the forces of good OR evil; Indeed the testimonies on the back quote one Boris Johnson as saying "Just what the doctor ordered". Make of that what you will.
It's the academic dryness that doesn't work for me, which makes it something of an abstract work. How much of this is the fault of Schopenhauer himself or his translator, I'm not qualified to say. But each "trick" is explained in very stuffy, theoretical prose that doesn't always make it easy to work out what that trick would look like in real life. Examples are given here and there but are not as standard; more would help, especially for a modern audience now attuned to ubiquitous arguments, whether from politicians or on social media.
It's perhaps not meant to be pop-philosophy, but even so, much more could have been made of this.
It's the academic dryness that doesn't work for me, which makes it something of an abstract work. How much of this is the fault of Schopenhauer himself or his translator, I'm not qualified to say. But each "trick" is explained in very stuffy, theoretical prose that doesn't always make it easy to work out what that trick would look like in real life. Examples are given here and there but are not as standard; more would help, especially for a modern audience now attuned to ubiquitous arguments, whether from politicians or on social media.
It's perhaps not meant to be pop-philosophy, but even so, much more could have been made of this.
July 17, 2024
"Everyone is at liberty to be a fool."
This ironic take on chicanery is all about the number of lengths people would go to prove they are right, even when they're not.
"For it is with victory that you are concerned, and not the truth."
It's not really about how you can persuade people, but how you can evade those who have no interest in finding out the truth, but in winning.
"Vanity always outweighs the truth."
Winning an argument doesn't really mean that the argument was right, just that the winner in question has loads of tricks up their sleeve.
"Dico ego, tu dicis, sed denique dixit et ille.
Dictaque post toties, nil nisi dicta vides."
This ironic take on chicanery is all about the number of lengths people would go to prove they are right, even when they're not.
"For it is with victory that you are concerned, and not the truth."
It's not really about how you can persuade people, but how you can evade those who have no interest in finding out the truth, but in winning.
"Vanity always outweighs the truth."
Winning an argument doesn't really mean that the argument was right, just that the winner in question has loads of tricks up their sleeve.
"Dico ego, tu dicis, sed denique dixit et ille.
Dictaque post toties, nil nisi dicta vides."
August 31, 2018
Etwas enttäuscht von diesem Aufsatz. Schopenhauer erklärt wie man vor Publikum recht behält. Viele der sogenannten Kunstgriffe beruhen darauf, dass man selbst oder der Gegner gar nicht an der Wahrheitsfindung interessiert ist.
January 5, 2022
A book I read to develop my knowledge in the art of persuasion, I thought it was an easy read, a small book and one that is formatted in an interesting and engaging way.
Read
May 31, 2024Nothing works more then the genuineness.
Book with number on the title feels very vague to me.
Book with number on the title feels very vague to me.
November 13, 2013
People, generally speaking, don't need to learn the tricks of rhetoric. While one's skills can always be honed, we see the fruits of bad arguing committed by people unconsciously and to great argumentative effect. While it would be easy to blame politicians and pundits, we only need to look in a comment section of any online thread to see the same nonsense deployed.
So a book dedicated to the idea of pernicious rhetorical tricks may sound like it would make the problem worse, but it's a way of being able to recognise the tricks. If you know the ways in which people can be manipulative, you'll be more on your guard when you come across them.
The only negative thing about the book is that the descriptions are annoyingly brief, most no more than a paragraph or two. It's enough in most cases, but a couple of tactics could have been helped with examples.
So a book dedicated to the idea of pernicious rhetorical tricks may sound like it would make the problem worse, but it's a way of being able to recognise the tricks. If you know the ways in which people can be manipulative, you'll be more on your guard when you come across them.
The only negative thing about the book is that the descriptions are annoyingly brief, most no more than a paragraph or two. It's enough in most cases, but a couple of tactics could have been helped with examples.
September 5, 2013
Uuuuuuuuuseful!
March 3, 2015
One of those books like the prince where the author isn't intending you to follow its advice ...
November 16, 2014
Many of these you see in internet debates.
Read
October 28, 2017Want to understand how dialectic tricks are used in arguments and have a laugh about it when people try to use this kind of logical trickery against you, then read this wonderfull book ;-)
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews