120 Charisma Quotes to Inspire You and Influence Others

Charisma refers to the ability to attract and influence those around you. It is a blend of exceptional interpersonal and communication skills. This interesting and largely misunderstood trait does not come to everyone naturally.

Below are some quotes and sayings that will help you understand what charisma is really about.

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  1. Powerful quotes about charisma
  2. Charisma and success quotes
  3. Charismatic leadership quotes
  4. Quotes about charm

Powerful quotes about charisma

Find out what some of the most powerful and influential people had to say about charisma. Hopefully, you will find these powerful quotes enlightening!

1. “Charisma is a glint in people that cannot be bought, it is intangible energy with tangible effects.” —Marianne Williamson
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2. “Charisma is the ability to have influence in the absence of logic.” —Quentin Crisp
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3. “Charisma is the aura of the soul.” —Toba Beta

4. “Charisma is a mystifying and powerful thing. I possess it in limited supply, and it functions in highly special conditions.” —Jesse Kellerman
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5. “Charisma is the impalpable that makes people follow you, want to surround you and be influenced by you” —Roger Dawson
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6. “Charisma gets the attention of man and character gets the attention of God.” —Rich Wilkerson Jr. 

7. “Being negative is like spraying yourself with anti-charisma.” —Karen Salmonsohn
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8. “Charisma is the transference of enthusiasm.” —Ralph Archbold
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9. “How can you have charisma? Be more concerned about making others feel good about themselves than you are making them feel good about you.” —Dan Reiland

10. “It’s absurd to divide people into good and bad. People are either charming or tedious.” —Oscar Wilde
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11. “Charisma is a sign of the calling. Saints and pilgrims are definitely moved by it.” —B.W. Powe 
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12. “Personality is essential. It is in every work of art. When someone walks on stage for a performance and has charisma, everyone is convinced that he has personality. I find that charisma is merely a form of showmanship. Movie stars usually have it. A politician has to have it.” —Luka Foss

13. “Lack of charisma can be fatal.” —Jenny Holzer
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14. “You either have the charisma, the knowledge, the passion, the intelligence or you don’t.” —Jon Gruden
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15. “I’m really tall when I stand on my charisma.” —Harlan Ellison

16. “Stand tall and be proud. Realize confidence is charismatic and something that is something money can’t buy, it radiates from within you.” —Cindy Ann Peterson
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17. “You can be revered for all sorts of qualities, but to be truly charismatic is rare.” —Francesca Annis
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18. “Charismatic people are more resilient and do know how to stay positive when most people would panic. But that positivity is grounded in reality. It’s how they really feel. On those occasions where the charismatic person is genuinely hurt, nervous, or pissed, they reveal those feelings.” —Charlie Houpert

19. “The most dangerous people are always clever, compelling, and charismatic.” —Malcolm McDowell
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20. “I think that natural beauty is very charismatic.” —Elle Macpherson
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21. “Charisma is a word that erodes stale on the page. When compared with the tangible, flesh experience it tries to label, it falls short. The only way to understand it is to meet it.” —Brian D’Ambrosio

22. “Beware of the charismatic wolf in sheep’s clothing. There is evil in the world. You can be tricked.” —Terry Tempest Williams
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23. “Charisma without character is postponed calamity.” —Peter Ajisafe
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24. “Charisma is not just saying hello. It is dropping what you’re doing to say hello.” —Robert Brault

25. “We need less posturing and more genuine charisma. Charisma was originally a religious term, meaning ‘of the spirit’ or ‘inspired.’ It’s about letting God’s light shine through us. It’s about a sparkle in people that money can’t buy. It’s an invisible energy with visible effects. To let go, to just love, is not to fade into the wallpaper. Quite the contrary, it’s when we truly become bright. We’re letting our own light shine.” —Marianne Williamson
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26. “Charisma is the transference of enthusiasm.” —Ralph Archbold
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27. “Charisma is the fancy name given to the knack of giving people your full attention.” —Robert Brault

28. “Charisma can inspire.” —Simon Sinek
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29. “People who love life have charisma because they fill the room with positive energy.” —John C. Maxwell
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30. “Charisma is the perfect blend of warmth and confidence.” —Vanessa Van Edwards

31. “People say a lot of things, like ‘You can’t teach personality’ or ‘You can’t teach charisma,’ and I find that it’s not true.” —Daniel Bryan
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32. “The number one quality is charisma. You have to be able to connect with the audience. That is the magic ‘it’ factor that designates a star from someone who is just never going to be a star.” —Stephanie McMahon
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33. “Personality is essential. It is in every work of art. When someone walks on stage for a performance and has charisma, everyone is convinced that he has personality. I find that charisma is merely a form of showmanship. Movie stars usually have it. A politician has to have it.” —Lukas Foss

34. “You can’t teach charisma. You can draw it out of people if it’s there and they haven’t quite figured out how to utilize it yet, but it’s just one of those things, that’s why they call it the ‘X factor.’” —Stephanie McMahon
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35. “Among all life forms, there are creatures with charisma and creatures without. It’s one of those ineffable qualities we can’t quite define, but we all seem to respond similarly to.” —Susan Orlean
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36. “Charisma is the numinous aura around a narcissistic personality.” —Camille Paglia

37. “Charisma is the divine force that manifests itself in women and men. The supernatural power we don’t need to show anyone because everyone can see it, even usually insensitive people. But it only happens when we’re naked, when we die to the world and are reborn to ourselves.” —Paulo Coelho
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38. “Charisma is a sign of the calling. Saints and pilgrims are defiantly moved by it.” —B.W. Powe
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39. “I try to hold my charisma in check.” —George H.W. Bush

40. “We shouldn’t be too naive, or taken in by charisma.” —Tenzin Palmo
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41. “My strong point is not rhetoric, it isn’t showmanship, it isn’t big promises—those things that create the glamor and the excitement that people call charisma and warmth.” —Richard M. Nixon
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42. “Charisma on stage is not necessarily evidence of the Holy Spirit.” Andy Stanley

43. “Let the others have beauty. I’ve got the charisma.” —Carine Roitfeld
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44. “Just because someone is very charismatic, it doesn’t mean that they’re genuinely qualified.” —Tenzin Palmo
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45. “I attract a crowd, not because I’m an extrovert or I’m over the top or I’m oozing with charisma. It’s because I care.” —Gary Vaynerchuk

46. “Charisma is a sparkle in people that money can’t buy. It’s an invisible energy with visible effects.” —Marianne Williamson
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47. “Fame is not so impossible for people with charisma, passion and talent.” —Ashly Lorenzana
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48. “Litvak knew that charisma was a real if indefinable quality, a chemical fire that certain half-fortunate men gave off. Like any fire or talent, it was amoral, unconnected to goodness or wickedness, power or usefulness or strength.”—Michael Chabon

49. “We are, in spite of it all, a charismatic species.” —John Green
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50. “What is charisma but the power of rhetoric in just a few words. Or even without words!” —R.N. Prasher
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51. “The essential difference with Builders is that they’ve found something to do that matters to them and are therefore so passionately engaged, they rise above the personality baggage that would otherwise hold them down. Whatever they are doing has so much meaning to them that the cause itself provides charisma and they plug into it as if it was electrical current.” —Jerry Porras

52. “Charisma often flows from total self-confidence.” —Peter Heather
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53. “Charisma will bring you to the top, but character will maintain you on the top.” —Anonymous
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54. “Charisma without character can be catastrophic.” —Jerryking Adeleke 

55. “He had a charisma, and charisma is not just the way the face looked. It’s how he moved, how he stood.” —Jim Rees
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56. “Consciously or not, charismatic individuals choose specific behaviors that make other people feel a certain way. These behaviors can be learned and perfected by anyone.” —Olivia Fox Cabane

Quotes about charisma and success

Looking at successful people, charisma is undoubtedly a common trait. Below is what some of these successful people had to say about charisma.

Hopefully, you find these motivational quotes encouraging and inspirational.

1.“Being a leader gives you charisma. If you look and study the leaders who have succeeded, that’s where charisma comes from, from the leading.” —Seth Godin
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2. “Throw away those books and cassettes on inspirational leadership. Send those consultants packing. Know your job, set a good example for the people under you and put results over politics. That’s all the charisma you’ll really need to succeed.” —Dyan Machan
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3. “People who study the way religions develop have shown that if you have a charismatic teacher, and you don’t have an institution develop around that teacher within about a generation to transmit succession within the group, the movement just dies.” —Elaine Pagels

4. “Poker is a charismatic game. People who are larger than life play poker and make their living from playing games and hustling.” —James Altucher
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5. “That occurs everywhere, unfortunately. Powerful, smart women who make it to the end sometimes are not seen as the same charismatic likable guys.” —Allison Grodner
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6. “There aren’t many successful or charismatic candidates today, because many people can’t withstand the scrutiny.” —Tom Ford

7. “Charismatic people do not only want to win, they want others to win too. That creates productivity.” —John C. Maxwell
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8. “But charisma only wins people’s attention. Once you have their attention, you have to have something to tell them.” —Daniel Quinn
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9. “The essential element in personal magnetism is a consuming sincerity—charisma— an overwhelming faith in the importance of the work that one has to do.” —Bruce Barton

10. “The reason we’re successful, darling? My overall charisma, of course.” —Freddy Mercury
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11. “Everyone knows of successful projects that were too dependent on a charismatic individual, or simply too expensive to be replicated.” —Geoff Mulgan
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12. “I’ve known entrepreneurs who were not great salespeople, or didn’t know how to code, or were not particularly charismatic leaders. But I don’t know of any entrepreneurs who have achieved any level of success without persistence and determination.” —Harvey MacKay

13. “Charisma will sustain a relationship only in the way that strong coffee first thing in the morning will sustain a career.” —Elliot Perlman
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14. “Consider the idea that charisma can be just as much a liability as an asset. Your strength of personality can sow the seeds of problems, when people filter the brutal facts of life from you.” —Jim Collins
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15. To be successful, you have to develop certain traits such as courage, dignity, charisma and integrity. You also have to recognize that you have to work harder on yourself than on your job. You attract success because of the person you are. Personal development is key.” —Jim Rohn

16. “Your success encourages my brilliance, and my charisma enhances your power.” —Rob Brezsny
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17. “Research has shown that one’s level of intelligence is the single most predictive component of professional success—better than any other ability, trait, or even job experience. Yet, too often, employees are selected because of their likeability, presence, or charisma.” —Justin Menkes
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18. “Don’t worry about being successful but work toward being significant and the success will naturally follow.” —Oprah Winfrey

19. “Success isn’t about how much money you make. It’s about the difference you make in people’s lives.” —Michelle Obama
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20. “You can succeed by being a mediocre manager and a great leader, or a great manager and a mediocre leader. Try to figure out which you are and partner with someone with complementary strengths. Best startup teams often have one of each.” —Sam Altman
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21. “I’ve known entrepreneurs who were not great salespeople, or didn’t know how to code, or were not particularly charismatic leaders. But I don’t know of any entrepreneurs who have achieved any level of success without persistence and determination.” —Harvey Mackay

22. “In roughly the last century, important experiments have been launched by such charismatic educators as Maria Montessori, Rudolf Steiner, Shinichi Suzuki, John Dewey, and A. S. Neil. These approaches have enjoyed considerable success […] Yet they have had relatively little impact on the mainstream of education throughout the contemporary world.” —Howard Gardner

Quotes about charismatic leadership

We can’t really talk about good leadership and remove charisma from the conversation. Charisma is a great and essential quality when it comes to leadership.

1.“Charisma results from adequate leadership, not the other way around.”—Warren G. Bennis
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2.“Charisma is the present from above where a leader is self-assured on what they need to do.” —Max Weber
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3.“Charismatic leaders don’t say what people want to hear, but they say what people want to say.” —C.L. Gammon

4. “Charisma becomes the undoing of leaders. It makes them inflexible, convinced of their own infallibility, unable to change.” —Peter Drucker
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5. “When you put together deep knowledge about a subject that intensely matters to you, charisma happens. You gain courage to share your passion, and when you do that, folks follow.” —Jerry I. Porras
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6. “Producing major change in an organization is not just about signing up one charismatic leader. You need a group, a team, to be able to drive the change. One person, even a terrific charismatic leader, is never strong enough to make all this happen.” —John P. Kotter

7. “The three most charismatic leaders in this century inflicted more suffering on the human race than almost any trio in history: Hitler, Stalin, and Mao. What matters is not the leader’s charisma. What matters is the leader’s mission.” —Peter F. Drucker
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8. “Inverted totalitarianism, unlike classical totalitarianism, does not revolve around a charismatic leader.” —Chris Hedges
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9. “Charisma becomes the undoing of leaders. It makes them inflexible, convinced of their own infallibility, unable to change.” —Peter Drucker

10. “Most people think of leaders as being these outgoing, very visible, and charismatic people, which I find to be a very narrow perception. The key challenge for managers today is to get beyond the surface of your colleagues. You might just find that you have introverts embedded within your organization who are natural-born leaders.” —Douglas Conant
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11. “Charisma knows only inner determination and inner restraint. The charismatic leader gains and maintains authority solely by proving his strength in life.” —Max Weber
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12. “Effective leadership is about earning respect, and it’s about personality and charisma.” —Alan Sugar

13. “Emotions are charismatic. Focused emotions are very charismatic. To lead people with charisma, you need to take charge of and focus your emotions.” —Nick Morgan
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14. “A great politician has great charisma.” —Catherine Zeta-Jones
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15. “Leadership is not about having charisma or speaking inspirational words, but about leading by example.” —Zainab Salbi

16. “A great conductor possesses that certain charisma and talent that demand the ears and the attention of an audience. I can’t tell you how that happens, but I’m sure it has an inner basis that is never learned.” —Isaac Stern
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17. “The term ‘charisma’ will be applied to a certain quality of an individual personality by virtue of which he is considered extraordinary and treated as endowed with supernatural, superhuman, or at least specifically exceptional powers or qualities. These are not accessible to the ordinary person, but are regarded as divine origin or as exemplary, and on the basis of them the individual concerned is treated as a ‘leader.’” —Max Weber
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18. “Leadership is not about personality, possessions, or charisma, but all about who you are as a person. I used to believe that leadership was about style but now I know that leadership is about substance, namely character.” —James Hunter

19. “I’m a believer that charisma makes a huge difference in people’s decisions to follow you. However, it’s not just that you say it well, but it’s that you know it well. It helps if you can say it well enough that people want to follow you. Charisma isn’t required, but it makes a big difference.” —Don Yaeger
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20. “Too many people are confusing charisma with autocrat, fat cat. So I think we have to be a little more sophisticated when we hold up or tear down these stereotypes. Whether we call it charisma or not, a leader cannot be self-effacing to the point of being wimpy.” —Noel Tichy
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21. “No one is charismatic. Someone becomes charismatic in history, socially. The question for me is once again the problem of humility. If the leader discovers that he is becoming charismatic not because of his or her qualities but because mainly he or she is being able to express the expectations of a great mass of people, then he or she is much more of a translator of the aspirations and dreams of the people, instead of being the creator of the dreams. In expressing the dreams, he or she is recreating these dreams. If he or she is humble, I think that the danger of power would diminish.” —Myles Horton

22. “If you have a charismatic cause you don’t need to be a charismatic leader.” —James C. Collins
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23. “I don’t think it takes much for a cult to be a cult. Many parts of our society are cultish, and you only need a charismatic leader and some teachings, and before you know it, you have a cult.” —Jerome Flynn
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24. “I have always felt it was a handicap for oppressed peoples to depend so largely upon a leader, because unfortunately in our culture, the charismatic leader usually becomes a leader because he has found a spot in the public limelight.” —Ella Baker

25. “It’s pretty amazing, someone having that kind of charisma—and it still happens in micro and macro forms—to convince a whole gaggle of people to kill themselves. Or put on robes and jump up and down. That takes a very charismatic leader.” —Annie E. Clark
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26. “Producing major change in an organization is not just about signing up one charismatic leader. You need a group—a team—to be able to drive the change. One person, even a terrific charismatic leader, is never strong enough to make all this happen.” —John P. Kotter
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27. “In order to have a charismatic leader, you have to have a charismatic program. Because if you have a charismatic program, then if you can read you can lead. When the leader gets killed while you’re reading from page 13 of your charismatic program, you can bury the man with honors, then continue the plan by reading from page 14. Let’s keep on.” —John Henrik Clarke

28. “The most dangerous leadership myth is that leaders are born—that there is a genetic factor to leadership. This myth asserts that people simply either have certain charismatic qualities or not. That’s nonsense; in fact, the opposite is true. Leaders are made rather than born.” —Warren Bennis
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29. “Fidel Castro was a charismatic revolutionary and a ruthless leader who allowed no dissent.” —Scott Simon
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30. “We’re trained to see the world in terms of charismatic organizations and charismatic people. That’s who we look to for leadership and change, for transformation. We’re awaiting the next J.F.K., the next Martin Luther King, the next Gandhi, the next Nelson Mandela.” —Paul Hawken

31. “Leaders who led their organizations quietly and humbly, were much more effective than flashy, charismatic high profile leaders.” —James C. Collins
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32. “Leadership isn’t the private reserve of a few charismatic men and women. It’s a process ordinary people use when they’re bringing forth the best from themselves and others. Liberate the leader in everyone, and extraordinary things happen.” —James M. Kouzes

Quotes about charm

While the two are usually confused and sometimes treated like the same thing, charm and charisma are different concepts. Charm entails knowing how to make others happy, while charisma refers to knowing how to influence others.

1. “Jim Rohn is the master motivator—he has style, substance, charisma, relevance, charm, and what he says makes a difference and it sticks. I consider Jim the ‘Chairman of Speakers.’ The world be a better place if everyone heard my friend” —Mark Victor Hansen
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2. “Charm is a kind of margin to the human personality.” —Pius Ojara
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3. “Charm is the quality in others that makes us more satisfied with ourselves.” —Henri Frederic Amiel

4. “Brevity is a great charm of eloquence.” —Cicero
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5. “Charm is a way of getting the answer ‘Yes’ without asking a clear question.” —Albert Camus
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6. “Charm is a woman’s strength, just as strength is a man’s charm.” —Havelock Ellis

7. “Charm is more valuable than beauty. You can resist beauty, but you can’t resist charm.” —Audrey Tatou
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8. “Charm is a product of the unexpected.” —Jose Marti
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9. “There is no charm equal to tenderness of heart.” —Jane Austen
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10. “Faces that have charmed us the most escape us the soonest.” —Walter Scott

You might like to read our article on how to be more charming.

Viktor is a Counselor specialized in interpersonal communication and relationships. He manages SocialSelf’s scientific review board. Follow on Twitter or read more.

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