Selected communication quotes

1. Great minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events, small minds discuss people.

2. Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.

3. Maybe the Dalai Lama is the only person who is totally honest, and even with him, he's skillful not to hurt anybody. He's skillful.

4. Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless....

5. One may have a blazing hearth in one's soul and yet no one ever came to sit by it. Passers-by see only a wisp of smoke from the chimney and continue on their way.

6. Tender-handed stroke a nettle, And it stings you for your pains; Grasp it like a man of mettle, And it soft as silk remains. 'Tis the same with common natures: Use 'em kindly, they rebel; But be rough as nutmeg-graters, And the rogues obey you well.

7. Reason gains all people by compelling none.

8. He can compress the most words into the smallest ideas of any man I ever met.

9. A picture is worth 10K words - but only those to describe the picture. Hardly any sets of 10K words can be adequately described with pictures.

10. If a listener nods his head when you're explaining your program, wake him up.

11. The best book on programming for the layman is 'Alice in Wonderland'; but that's because it's the best book on anything for the layman.

12. Charm is a way of getting the answer 'Yes' without asking a clear question.

13. If you are out to describe the truth, leave elegance to the tailor.

14. You do not really understand something unless you can explain it to your grandmother.

15. I don't think that we necessarily lie. I mean, we make our living by pretending that we're someone else. I don't tell tall tales. I always tell the truth.

16. Everything deep is also simple and can be reproduced simply as long as its reference to the whole truth is maintained. But what matters is not what is witty but what is true.

17. Here again, there is no tabulation; for us it is left to sacrifice literary charm, and even some accuracy, in order to bring out the one great point. The cause of human sectarianism is not lack of sympathy in thought, but in speech; and this it is our not unambitious design to remedy.

18. Falsehood is invariably the child of fear in one form or another.

19. It is amusing to discover, in the twentieth century, that the quarrels between two lovers, two mathematicians, two nations, two economic systems, usually assumed insoluble in a finite period should exhibit one mechanism, the semantic mechanism of identification - the discovery of which makes universal agreement possible, in mathematics and in life.

20. Thus, we see that one of the obvious origins of human disagreement lies in the use of noises for words.

21. It is a barren kind of criticism which tells you what a thing is not.

22. I cannot hold with those who wish to put down the insignificant chatter of the world.

23. Speeches easy to young speakers are generally very difficult to old listeners.

24. Money speaks sense in a language all nations understand.

25. Wit is well-bred insolence.

26. It is simplicity that makes the uneducated more effective than the educated when addressing popular audiences.

27. The secret to humor is surprise.

28. A good newspaper, I suppose, is a nation talking to itself.

29. I waited and waited, and when no message came, I knew it must have been from you.

30. If you have something to say and say nothing, you are really telling a lie.

31. My computer must be broken: whenever I ask a wrong question, it gives a wrong answer.

32. Words are a wonderful form of communication, but they will never replace kisses and punches.

33. If only our great thinkers could learn to talk, and our great talkers could learn to think.

34. When you plan a journey from your mind into mine, remember to allow for the time difference.

35. Communication with the dead is only a little more difficult than communication with some of the living.

36. My worst personal problem is that my computer doesn't understand me.

37. How can you call it unreasonable when all I want is my own way?

38. There's nothing on my mind that couldn't be expressed by a long insane outburst of hysterical rage.

39. To the Tax Office: All is over between us. Please don't attempt to communicate with me again.

40. I have just discovered the truth, and can't understand why everybody isn't eager to hear it.

41. If you wants to get elected president, you've got to think up some memorable homily so's school kids can be pestered into memorizin' it, even if they don't know what it means.

42. A tart temper never mellows with age, and a sharp tongue is the only edge tool that grows keener with constant use.

43. I'm trying to say it all in one sentence, between one cap and one period.

44. There is no worse lie than a truth misunderstood by those who hear it.

45. As thou these ashes, little brook! will bear Into the Avon, Avon to the tide Of Severn, Severn to the narrow seas, Into main ocean they, this deed accurst, An emblem yields to friends and enemies How the bold teacher's doctrine, sanctified By truth, shall spread throughout the world dispersed.

46. Broadly speaking, short words are the best, and the old words, when short, are best of all.

47. Him: Come to my quarters tomorrow at three. Sonja: I can't. Him: Please! Sonja: It's immoral. What time? Him: Who is to say what is moral? Sonja: Morality is subjective. Him: Subjectivity is objective. Sonja: Moral notions imply attributes to substances which exist only in relational duality. Him: Not as an essential extension of ontological existence. Sonja: Can we not talk about sex so much?

48. Thus ended our little talk: yet it left a pleasant impression. True, the subject was strange enough; my sisters might have been shocked at it; and at my freedom in asking and giving opinions. But oh! the blessing it is to have a friend to whom one can speak fearlessly on any subject; with whom one's deepest as well as one's most foolish thoughts come out simply and safely. Oh, the comfort - the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person - having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words, but pouring them all right out, just as they are, chaff and grain together; certain that a faithful hand will take and sift them, keep what is worth keeping, and then with the breath of kindness blow the rest away. Somebody must have done a good deal of the winnowing business this afternoon; for in the course of it I gave him as much nonsense as any reasonable man could stand ...

49. I think if you like somebody you have to tell them. It might be embarrassing to say it, but you will never regret stepping up.

50. Thus ended our little talk: yet it left a pleasant impression. True, the subject was strange enough; my sisters might have been shocked at it; and at my freedom in asking and giving opinions. But oh! the blessing it is to have a friend to whom one can speak fearlessly on any subject; with whom one's deepest as well as one's most foolish thoughts come out simply and safely. Oh, the comfort - the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person - having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words, but pouring them all right out, just as they are, chaff and grain together; certain that a faithful hand will take and sift them, keep what is worth keeping, and then with the breath of kindness blow the rest away. Somebody must have done a good deal of the winnowing business this afternoon; for in the course of it I gave him as much nonsense as any reasonable man could stand ...

51. I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.

52. ...the analogy between the noises we make when these noises do not symbolize anything which exists, and the worthless checks we write when our bank balance is zero...

53. Inform all the troops that communications have completely broken down

54. Never write a letter and never destroy one

55. We spend our lives fighting to get people very slightly more stupid than ourselves to accept truths that the great men have always known. They have known for thousands of years that to lock a sick person into solitary confinement makes him worse. They have known for thousands of years that a poor man who is frightened of his landlord and of the police is a slave. They have known it. We know it. But do the great enlightened mass of the British people know it? No. It is our task, Ella, yours and mine, to tell them. Because the great men are too great to be bothered. They are already discovering how to colonise Venus and to irrigate the moon. That is what is important for our time. You and I are the boulder-pushers. All our lives, you and I, we'll put all our energies, all our talents into pushing a great boulder up a mountain. The boulder is the truth that the great men know by instinct, and the mountain is the stupidity of mankind.

56. This is my letter to the World That never wrote to Me - The simple News that Nature told - With tender Majesty Her Message is committed To Hands I cannot see - For love of Her - Sweet - countrymen - Judge tenderly - of Me

57. Tell all the Truth but tell it slant - Success in Circuit lies Too bright for our infirm Delight The Truth's superb surprise As Lightning to the Children eased With explanation kind The Truth must dazzle gradually Or every man be blind -

58. Questions show the mind's range, and answers, its subtlety

59. A little inaccuracy sometimes saves a ton of explanation

60. Mr. Watson - Come here - I want to see you.

61. A playwright ... is ... the litmus paper of the arts. He's got to be, because if he isn't working on the same wave length as the audience, no one would know what in hell he was talking about. He is a kind of psychic journalist, even when he's great.

62. I came into the room which was half-dark and presently spotted Lord Kelvin in the audience, and realised that I was in for trouble at the last part of my speech dealing with the age of the Earth, where my views conflicted with his. To my relief, Kelvin fell fast asleep, but as I came to the important point, I saw the old bird sit up, open an eye and cock a baleful glance at me. Then a sudden inspiration came, and I said Lord Kelvin had limited the age of the Earth, provided no new source [of heat] was discovered. That prophetic utterance referred to what we are now considering tonight, radium! Behold! The old boy beamed upon me.

63. We will take the good will for the deed.

64. 'Everything you say is boring and incomprehensible,' she said, 'but that alone doesn't make it true.'

65. 'Does it mean this, does it mean that, that's all anybody wants to know. Fuck them, darling. I say what any decent poet would say if you dared ask him to analyse his work: If you see it, dear, then it's there.'

66. Reminds me of something my grandfather would say. He'd say, 'I'm going upstairs to fuck your grandmother.' He was an honest man, and he wasn't going to bullshit a four-year-old.

67. Actually, I- this may sound a little West Texan to you, but I like it. When I'm talking about- when I'm talking about myself, and when he's talking about myself, all of us are talking about me.

68. While birds can fly, only humans can argue. Argument is the affirmation of our being. It is the principal instrument of human intercourse. Without argument the species would perish. As a subtle suggestion, it is the means by which we aid another. As a warning, it steers us from danger. As exposition, it teaches. As an expression of creativity, it is the gift of ourselves. As a protest, it struggles for justice. As a reasoned dialogue, it resolves disputes. As an assertion of self, it engenders respect. As an entreaty of love, it expresses our devotion. As a plea, it generates mercy. As charismatic oration it moves multitudes and changes history. We must argue- to help, to warn, to lead, to love, to create, to learn, to enjoy justice, to be.

69. Gossip is mischievous, light and easy to raise, but grievous to bear and hard to get rid of. No gossip ever dies away entirely, if many people voice it: it too is a kind of divinity.

70. From the day I joined GE to the day I was named CEO, twenty years later, my bosses cautioned me about my candor. I was labeled abrasive and consistently warned my candor would soon get in the way of my career. : and I'm telling you that it was candor that helped make it work.

71. Does nobody understand?

72. This hitteth the nail on the head.

73. Half of what I say is meaningless But I say it just to reach you Julia.

74. It was Trout's fantasy that somebody would be outraged by the footprints. This would give him the opportunity to reply grandly, 'What is it that offends you so? I am simply using man's first printing press. You are reading a bold and universal headline which says ,'I am here, I am here, I am here.'

75. Art is a human activity consisting in this, that one consciously, by means of certain external symbols, conveys to others the feelings one has experienced, whereby people so infected by these feelings, also experience them.

76. No, no, never send interim reports. Only final ones. Interim reports tend to elicit orders. Which you must either then obey, or spend valuable time and energy evading, which you could be using to solve the problem.

77. Marta blinked at him with manufactured innocence. 'Kareen had it from Mark. I had it from Ivan. Mama had it from Gregor. And Da had it from Pym. If you're trying to keep it a sectret, Miles, why are you going around telling everyone'?

78. A raconter ses maux souvent on les soulage.

79. A girl called me the other day and said 'Come on over, there's nobody home.' I went over. Nobody was home.

80. I won a nickname, 'The Great Communicator.' But I never thought it was my style or the words I used that made a difference: It was the content. I wasn't a great communicator, but I communicated great things, and they didn't spring full bloom from my brow, they came from the heart of a great nation - from our experience, our wisdom, and our belief in principles that have guided us for two centuries. They called it the Reagan revolution. Well, I'll accept that, but for me it always seemed more like the great rediscovery, a rediscovery of our values and our common sense.

81. Include me out.

82. I don't want any yes-men around me. I want everyone to tell the truth - even though it costs him his job.

83. 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.

84. Mother always told me, if you tell a lie, always rehearse it. If it don't sound good to you, it won't sound good to no one else.

85. Analogies prove nothing, that is quite true, but they can make one feel more at home.

86. My friend has a baby. I'm writing down all the noises he makes so later I can ask him what he meant.

87. The most successful politician is he who says what everybody is thinking most often and in the loudest voice.

88. Truth will do well enough if left to shift for herself ... She has no need of force to procure entrance into the minds of men.

89. It is usually not wise to discuss matters of costume with people like this,- politics or religion being far safer topicks.

90. Have I told you lately that I love you? Have I told you there's no one above you? Fill my heart with gladness, Take away my sadness, Ease my troubles, that's what you do.

91. Never mind what I told you - do what I I tell you.

92. Never seek to tell thy love Love that never told can be; For the gentle wind does move Silently, invisibly. I told my love, I told my love, I told her all my heart; Trembling, cold, in ghastly fears- Ah, she doth depart. Soon as she was gone from me A traveler came by Silently, invisibly- Oh, was no deny.

93. This paper by its very length defends itself against the risk of being read.

94. Lady Nancy Astor: Winston, if I were your wife, I'd poison your tea. Churchill: Nancy, if I were your husband, I'd drink it.

95. If you ask me a question I don't know I'm not going to answer.

96. Who is this roody-poo?

97. Well, excuuuuuse me!!!!

98. Never call yourself a philosopher, nor talk a great deal among the unlearned about theorems, but act conformably to them. Thus, at an entertainment, don't talk how persons ought to eat, but eat as you ought. For remember that in this manner Socrates also universally avoided all ostentation. And when persons came to him and desired to be recommended by him to philosophers, he took and recommended them, so well did he bear being overlooked. So that if ever any talk should happen among the unlearned concerning philosophic theorems, be you, for the most part, silent. For there is great danger in immediately throwing out what you have not digested. And, if anyone tells you that you know nothing, and you are not nettled at it, then you may be sure that you have begun your business. For sheep don't throw up the grass to show the shepherds how much they have eaten; but, inwardly digesting their food, they outwardly produce wool and milk. Thus, therefore, do you likewise not show theorems to the unlearned, but the actions produced by them after they have been digested. (46)

99. Explanations are clear but since no one to whom a thing is explained can connect the explanations with what is really clear, therefore clear explanations are not clear. Now this is a simple thing that anybody who has ever argued or quarreled knows perfectly well is a simple thing, only when they read it they do not understand it because they do not see that understanding and believing are not the same thing. ~ Ch. 4

100. The head-lines which do not head anything they simply replace something but they do not make anything. ~ Ch. 5