It has been said that our anxiety does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow, but only empties today of its strength.
—Charles Spurgeon (1834–92) English Baptist Preacher
Speech is civilization itself. The word… preserves contact—it is silence which isolates.
—Thomas Mann (1875–1955) German Novelist, Short Story Writer, Social Critic, Philanthropist, Essayist
Let us not look east and west for materials of conversation, but rest in presence and unity. A just feeling will fast enough supply fuel for discourse, if speaking be more grateful than silence. When people come to see us, we foolishly prattle, lest we be inhospitable. But things said for conversation are chalk eggs. Don’t say things. What you are stands over you the while, and thunders so that I cannot hear what you say to the contrary. A lady of my acquaintance said, I don’t care so much for what they say as I do for what makes them say it.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
Conversation is an art in which a man has all mankind for competitors.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
Today it is not the classroom nor the classics which are the repositories of models of eloquence, but the ad agencies.
—Marshall Mcluhan (1911–80) Canadian Writer, Thinker, Educator
A witty saying proves nothing.
—Voltaire (1694–1778) French Philosopher, Author
Conversation warms the mind, enlivens the imagination, and is continually starting fresh game that is immediately pursued and taken, which would never have occurred in the driller intercourse of epistolary correspondence.
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–90) American Political Leader, Inventor, Diplomat
I have often regretted my speech, never my silence.
—Publilius Syrus (fl.85–43 BCE) Syrian-born Roman Latin Writer
Never try to impress people with the profundity of your thought by the obscurity of your language. Whatever has been thoroughly thought through can be stated simply.
—Unknown
Inject a few raisins of conversation into the tasteless dough of existence.
—O. Henry (William Sydney Porter) (1862–1910) American Writer of Short Stories
Listening to someone talk isn’t at all like listening to their words played over on a machine. What you hear when you have a face before you is never what you hear when you have before you a winding tape.
—Oriana Fallaci (1929–2006) Italian Journalist, Historian
The habit of common and continuous speech is a symptom of mental deficiency. It proceeds from not knowing what is going on in other people’s minds.
—Walter Bagehot (1826–77) English Economist, Journalist
You have such strong words at command, that they make the smallest argument seem formidable.
—George Eliot (Mary Anne Evans) (1819–80) English Novelist
In an easy matter. Anybody can be eloquent.
—Ovid (Publius Ovidius Naso) (c.43 BCE–c.18 CE) Roman Poet
Speech is power: speech is to persuade, to convert, to compel. It is to bring another out of his bad sense into your good sense.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
One’s feelings waste themselves in words; they ought all to be distilled into action … which bring results.
—Florence Nightingale (1820–1910) English Nurse
Debate is masculine, conversation is feminine.
—Amos Bronson Alcott (1799–1888) American Teacher, Writer, Philosopher
When you fall into a man’s conversation, the first thing you should consider is, whether he has a greater inclination to hear you, or that you should hear him.
—Richard Steele (1672–1729) Irish Writer, Politician
Say nothing good of yourself, you will be distrusted; say nothing bad of yourself, you will be taken at your word.
—Philibert Joseph Roux (1780–1854) French Surgeon
There is no conversation more boring than the one where everybody agrees.
—Michel de Montaigne (1533–92) French Essayist
To listen well, is as powerful a means of influence as to talk well, and is as essential to all true conversation.
—Chinese Proverb
Don’t accept rides from strange men – and remember that all men are as strange as hell.
—Robin Morgan (b.1941) American Activist, Writer, Poet, Editor
Everything becomes a little different as soon as it is spoken out loud.
—Hermann Hesse (1877–1962) German-born Swiss Novelist, Poet
They say women talk too much. If you have worked in Congress you know that the filibuster was invented by men.
—Clare Boothe Luce (1903–87) American Playwright, Diplomat, Journalist, Diplomat, Elected Rep
Little-minded people’s thoughts move in such small circles that five minutes conversation gives you an arc long enough to determine their whole curve.
—Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809–94) American Physician, Essayist
There is nothing that exasperates people more than a display of superior ability or brilliance in conversation. They seem pleased at the time, but their envy makes them curse the conversationalist in their heart.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
Remember not only to say the right thing in the right place, but far more difficult still, to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment.
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–90) American Political Leader, Inventor, Diplomat
The finest eloquence is that which gets things done; the worst is that which delays them.
—David Lloyd George (1863–1945) British Liberal Statesman
Saying what we think gives a wider range of conversation than saying what we know.
—Cullen Hightower (b.1923) American Humorist
As it is the characteristic of great wits to say much in few words, so it is of small wits to talk much and say nothing.
—Francois de La Rochefoucauld (1613–80) French Writer