Conversation Quotes
Most popular conversation quotes
Silence is one great art of conversation.
One evening's conversation with a superior man is better than ten years of study.
The real art of conversation is not only to say the right thing in the right place, but to leave unsaid the wrong thing in a tempting moment.
One of the best rules in conversation is never to say a thing which any of the company can reasonably wish had been left unsaid.
Conversation is a verbal exchange of 90% talking and 10% listening.
If a wise man's way you wisely seek, Five things observe with care: Of whom you speak, to whom you speak, And how, and when, and where.
Conversation would be vastly improved by the constant use of four simple words: "I do not know."
A gossip is one who talks about others; a bore is one who talks about himself; and a brilliant conversationalist is one who talks to you about yourself.
The reason why so few people are agreeable in conversation is that each is thinking more about what he intends to say than about what the other is saying.
Good nature is more agreeable in conversation than wit, and gives a certain expression to the face which is more amiable than beauty.
Subtlety is the art of saying what you think and getting out of range before it is understood.
People will listen a great deal more patiently while you explain your mistakes than when you explain your successes.
No man would listen to you if he didn't know it was his turn next.
The opposite of talking isn't listening. The opposite of talking is waiting.
Wit is the salt of conversation, not the food.
The worst part of an eminent man's conversation is, nine times out of ten, to be found in that part which he means to be clever.
The more the pleasures of the body fade away, the greater to me is the pleasure and charm of conversation.
Would it be possible for us to be more attentive to what we say to others and what we don't say?
In order to have dialogue, you have to know how to lower your defenses, open the doors of your home, and offer human warmth.
True growth in human consciousness cannot be founded on anything other than the practice of dialogue and love.
It's all right to hold a conversation, but you should let go of it now and then.
One way to prevent conversation from being boring is to say the wrong thing.
The first requirement of good conversation is that nobody should know what is coming next.
Conversation means being able to disagree and still continue the discussion.
Too much agreement kills a chat.
A letter is a soliloquy, but a letter with a postscript is a conversation.
Parents can plant magic in a child's mind through certain words spoken with some thrilling quality of voice, some uplift of the heart and spirit.
Good communication is as stimulating as black coffee, and just as hard to sleep after.
Silence, along with modesty, is a great aid to conversation.
Silence is the safety zone of conversation.
Saying what we think gives a wider range of conversation than saying what we know.
To disagree, one doesn't have to be disagreeable.
The wit of conversation consists more in finding it in others than in showing a great deal yourself.
Ideal conversation must be an exchange of thought, and not, as many of those who worry most about their shortcomings believe, an eloquent exhibition of wit or oratory.
Nothing a man writes can please him as profoundly as something he does with his back, shoulders and hands. For writing is an artificial activity. It is a lonely and private substitute for conversation.
CONVERSATION PEACE There is a certain labor-saving notion, dear to a lazy-minded generation, that if you can but keep your mouth in motion, then every breath you take is conversation.
Argument, as usually managed, is the worst sort of conversation; as it is generally in books the worst sort of reading.
Our companions please us less from the charms we find in their conversation than from those they find in ours.
My God! The English language is a form of communication! Conversation isn't just crossfire where you shoot and get shot at! Where you've got to duck for your life and aim to kill! Words aren't only bombs and bullets—no, they're little gifts, containing meanings!
Love and the union of love is impossible without conversation.
Among the Ibo the art of conversation is regarded very highly, and proverbs are the palm-oil with which words are eaten.
Debate is masculine; conversation is feminine.
Someone has said that conversation is sex for the soul.
It is all right to hold a conversation but you should let go of it now and then.
Improvisation is the essence of good talk. Heaven defend us from the talker who doles out things prepared for us!
Conversation, n. A fair for the display of the minor mental commodities, each exhibitor being too intent upon the arrangement of his own wares to observe those of his neighbor.
The true spirit of conversation consists in building on another man's observation, not overturning it.
Conversation is the music of the mind, an intellectual orchestra, where all the instruments should bear a part, but where none should play together.
Conversation . . . is the art of never appearing a bore, of knowing how to say everything interestingly, to entertain with no matter what, to be charming with nothing at all.
There is no arena in which vanity displays itself under such a variety of forms as in conversation.
No one can become a good conversationalist without tact. It is the sensitive touch that recognizes when a subject has become distasteful, which sees the eagerness of someone else to say something, which notes the slightest cloud of expression crossing another's face.
Conversation is like a dance, taking turns, following and leading.
The art of conversation, or the qualifications for a good companion, is a certain self-control, which now holds the subject, now lets it go, with a respect for the emergencies of the moment.
Conversation is an art in which a man has all mankind for his competitors, for it is that which they are practicing every day while they live.
The best of life is conversation, and the greatest success is confidence, or perfect understanding between sincere people.
How time flies when you's doin' all the talking.
In conversation and prayer, say less and listen more.
Conversation is the legs on which thought walks; and writing, the wings by which it flies.
Conversation enriches the understanding, but solitude is the school of genius.
One is always wrong to open a conversation with the devil, for, however he goes about it, he always insists upon having the last word.
In conversation, discretion is more important than eloquence.
The soul of conversation is sympathy.
Inject a few raisins of conversation into the tasteless dough of existence.
The perfection of conversational intercourse is when the breeding of high life is animated by the fervor of genius.
If you are ever at a loss to support a flagging conversation, introduce the subject of eating.
The conversational overachiever is someone whose grasp exceeds his reach. This is possible but not attractive.
The opposite of talking isn't listening. The opposite of talking is waiting.
Conversation is like a dear little baby that is brought in to be handed around. You must rock it, nurse it, keep it on the move if you want to keep smiling.
Conversation consists of developing and playing with ideas by juxtaposing the accumulated conclusions of two or more people and then improvising on them.
In married conversation, as in surgery, the knife must be used with care.
Have you ever noticed that most conversations are simply monologues delivered in the presence of a witness?
The real art of conversation is 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.
Question and answer is not a civilized form of conversation.
Wit in conversation is only a readiness of thought and a facility of expression, or (in the midwives' phrase) a quick conception, and an easy delivery.
It is not what we learn in conversation that enriches us. It is the elation that comes of swift contact with the tingling currents of thought.
Whoever interrupts the conversation of others to make a display of his own fund of knowledge, makes notorious his own stock of ignorance.
Marriage is one long conversation, chequered by disputes.
Each person's life is lived as a series of conversations.
All conversations are but debates.
Sex is a conversation carried out by other means.
Modest egotism is the salt of conversation; you do not want too much of it, but if it is altogether omitted, everything tastes flat.
Lettuce is like conversation: it must be fresh and crisp, and so sparkling that you scarcely notice the bitter in it.
Conversation should be like juggling; up go the balls and the plates, up and over, in and out, good solid objects that glitter in the footlights and fall with a bang if you miss them.
There is no such thing as conversation. It is an illusion. There are intersecting monologues, that is all.
She wanted to get away from herself, and conversation was the only means of escape that she knew.
Ah, good conversation—there's nothing like it, is there? The air of ideas is the only air worth breathing.
Human conversation is the most ancient and easiest way to cultivate the conditions for change—personal change, community and organizational change, planetary change.
Ultimately, the bond of all companionship, whether in marriage or friendship, is conversation.
After all, the only proper intoxication is conversation.
Conversation about the weather is the last refuge of the unimaginative.
In a good conversation, it is often the most significant that will remain undiscussed.
