Top 70 Frank Luntz Quotes (2024 Update)

1. “It’s not what you say, it’s what people hear.”

— Frank Luntz

2. “A compelling story, even if factually inaccurate, can be more emotionally compelling than a dry recitation of the truth.”

— Frank Luntz

3. “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.”

— Frank Luntz

4. “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.”

— Frank Luntz

5. “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.”

— Frank Luntz

6. “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.”

— Frank Luntz

7. “My father was a dentist, and I always thought that he was one of the 10. It’s an interesting way to personalize and humanize, which is one of the most important aspects of communication.”

— Frank Luntz

8. “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.”

— Frank Luntz

9. “When you say: The simple truth is this, and then you pause, and then you finish the sentence, people stop, and they think specifically about what you’re saying. And it’s, in essence, trying to boil it down to something that’s very understandable and meaningful.”

— Frank Luntz

10. “The Old Spice ads – women love it. The guys find it annoying. It always causes a great conversation. And it makes it more fun. You know, we’ve been testing those visuals to see what attracts attention.”

— Frank Luntz

11. “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.”

— Frank Luntz

12. “The most successful people in American life are those that have had horrific failures and have come back, done it again and again until they got it right, whether it’s Steve Jobs or Bill Gates or Warren Buffet.”

— Frank Luntz

13. “Believe in better is one of the most powerful words you can use in the business community.”

— Frank Luntz

14. “By the way, for those who are listening, I absolutely define – I have a face for radio. Unfortunately, I’ve got a voice for print. So I apologize for the sandpaper you’re listening to.”

— Frank Luntz

15. “As Warren Beatty, perhaps the best student of the human condition in Hollywood, once told me, people will forget what you say, but they will never forget how you made them feel.”

— Frank Luntz

16. “The public wants to know why or why not. They don’t want to know how you’re going to do it.”

— Frank Luntz

17. “Politics is gut; commercials are gut.”

— Frank Luntz

18. “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.”

— Frank Luntz

19. “There are certain aspects, and there are – there are 15 attributes of winners and winning slogans. “Which side are you on” sounds divisive, that you’re on one side or the other, at a time when we actually want universality. We want unanimity.”

— Frank Luntz

20. “The best advertising and the best communication when it comes to business is that which makes you smile, that which makes you think, that which makes you ponder.”

— Frank Luntz

21. “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.”

— Frank Luntz

22. “The way you communicate an idea is different than the way you communicate a product.”

— Frank Luntz

23. “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.”

— Frank Luntz

24. “If you’re a good numbers person, you’re a bad language person.”

— Frank Luntz

25. “Most voters would rather have their purse or wallet stolen than be audited by the IRS.”

— Frank Luntz

26. “The perfect opening is the word imagine, because imagine allows you to communicate in the eyes and the vision of the listener rather than yours. And the best illustration of that is “1984.” Room 101 in “1984” – everyone’s read it, and we all have our own imagination of what that looks like.”

— Frank Luntz

27. “What matters most in politics is personality. It’s not issues; it’s not image. It’s who you are and what you represent.”

— Frank Luntz

28. “If you’re fighting against a minimum wage increase, you’re fighting an uphill battle, because most Americans, even most Republicans, are okay with raising the minimum wage.”

— Frank Luntz

29. “He broke a cardinal rule of political communication: never repeat a criticism as part of your rebuttal.”

— Frank Luntz

30. “They learned the hard way – or not at all – that language is like fire: Depending on how you use it, it can either heat your house or burn it to the ground.”

— Frank Luntz

31. “Preserving parks and open spaces is a winner because it doesn’t need to be explained to everyday Americans.”

— Frank Luntz

32. “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.”

— Frank Luntz

33. “Traditional market researchers are cold and calculating and scientific.”

— Frank Luntz

34. “Nothing guarantees more applause and more support than the call to abolish the IRS.”

— Frank Luntz

35. “The visual is important. “Let’s get to work” says let’s get it done, and that’s what they want.”

— Frank Luntz

36. “Richard Nixon will always go down as a failure because of one stupid, moral – and that goes back to that last chapter, on principles.”

— Frank Luntz

37. “Nothing’s going to stop you or deter you or cause you to give up. Pursuit, because nobody actually expects it to happen. They want you to be continuous in your efforts. And perfection because there’s just nothing better.”

— Frank Luntz

38. “When you’re selling a product or service, you don’t have – it doesn’t have to be absolutely perfect, although I’ve provided language that is. When you’re a politician, one wrong word changes the entire – changes the meaning of something.”

— Frank Luntz

39. “It has to be simple, but then you deliver them a principle: The simple truth is, as a matter of principle, we cannot spend more than we take in. Something – that changes the tone of the debate.”

— Frank Luntz

40. “We are so divided, and we recognize that we’re divided, that we’re looking for ways to come together.”

— Frank Luntz

41. “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.”

— Frank Luntz

42. “I would not have used the phrase “I’m selling you” because even though that’s exactly what you’re doing, when you tell people you’re doing it – or worse yet, when you tell people “I’m not here to sell you anything,” they automatically assume that that’s exactly what you are here to do.”

— Frank Luntz

43. “That’s the kind of visual that you’re trying to attract – something that in some way or another, connects you to what’s happening there in a realistic way.”

— Frank Luntz

44. “If you just heard 90 percent of dentists recommend something, it’s too statistical. Nine out of 10 says: Well, it’s just virtually everyone. It leads you to think of that joke about the one dentist. But so much of communication.”

— Frank Luntz

45. “With all due respect to UPS – it’s a fine company – nobody cares about logistics. They care about that package arriving at their home, at their office, when it is supposed to and in the condition it’s supposed to. FedEx is a much better communicator than UPS.”

— Frank Luntz

46. “Bill Clinton was effective because he had that personal relationship, that this was a guy who had tremendous curiosity, which is another one of the key attributes. And he had the ability – his mind was – his mind and his heart were very well-connected. And so he genuinely empathized.”

— Frank Luntz

47. “When you trash the opposition, you simultaneously demean yourself.”

— Frank Luntz

48. “The ability to connect and communicate is one of the most powerful, and you cannot find anyone who has been truly successful in life that doesn’t have that ability because you’ve got to motivate, and you’ve got to -frankly, you have to influence.”

— Frank Luntz

49. “The most powerful visual in America today is actually the Statue of Liberty.”

— Frank Luntz

50. “Those who define the debate will determine the outcome.”

— Frank Luntz