Skip to content
quotesby

About this quote

What does it mean?
Conversation is a universal art where everyone competes to express themselves daily.
In plain terms
Talking is an art everyone practices with everyone else every day.
What can you take from it?
Treat conversation as a daily art to master.

Where it applies

  • networking
  • conflict resolution
  • friendship

Putting it to work

  • listening
  • public speaking
  • dialogue

Questions to consider

  • How do you view conversation?
  • Are you improving your social skills?

Another view

Not all conversations aim for art or mutual understanding.

More from Ralph Waldo Emerson

  1. Make yourself necessary to somebody. Do not make life hard to any.

    Permalink to quote #206
  2. Beauty without grace is the hook without the bait.

    Permalink to quote #208
  3. Our chief want in life is somebody who shall make us do what we can.

    Permalink to quote #205

Related quotes

  1. Although there exist many thousand subjects for elegant conversation, there are persons who cannot meet a cripple without talking about feet.

    Ernest BramahErnest Bramah quote #3
  2. It is always observable that silence propagates itself, and that the longer talk has been suspended, the more difficult it is to find any thing to say.

    Samuel JohnsonSamuel Johnson quote #4
  3. It is so difficult to mix with artists! You must choose business men to talk to, because artists only talk of money.

    Jean SibeliusJean Sibelius quote #6