Robert Cialdini quotes:

The obligation to receive reduces our ability to choose whom we wish to be indebted to and puts that power in the hands of others.

We will use the actions of others to decide on proper behavior for ourselves, especially when we view those others as similar to ourselves

Our best evidence of what people truly feel and believe comes less from their words than from their deeds.

The truly gifted negotiator, then, is one whose initial position is exaggerated enough to allow for a series of concessions that will yield a desirable final offer from the opponent, yet is not so outlandish as to be seen as illegitimate from the start.

A well-known principle of human behavior says that when we ask someone to do us a favor we will be more successful if we provide a reason. People simply like to have reasons for what they do.

At the beginning of each lecture I say, 'Here's a set of events unexplainable by common sense, and I promise you'll be able to solve this mystery at the end of class.'

By concentrating our attention on the effect rather than the causes, we can avoid the laborious, nearly impossible task of trying to detect and deflect the many psychological influences on liking.

The joy is not in experiencing a scarce commodity but in possessing it.

There is a group of people who know very well where the weapons of automatic influence lie and employ them regularly and expertly to get what they want. They go from social encounter to social encounter requesting others to comply with their wishes; their frequency of success is dazzling.

There's a difference between a mystery and a question. Questions demand answers, but a mystery demands something more valuable-explanation.