The art of civil conversation begins at birth. Then goes from the dinner table to the schoolroom, to interaction among friends, to the work place, and on to other places where all manner of social...

Smartphones are tools which fools fiddle with when they are around people that they don’t have the courage, or, the intellect, to converse with.

First, let me finish. Then interrupt.

Take lightly what you hear about individuals. We need not distort trust for our paltry little political agendas. We tend to trust soulless, carried information more than we trust soulful human beings; but really most...

We are more advanced technologically than ever before. However, technology, in many respects, is leading to the decline of conversation.

Sometimes, the silence between the two persons is better than their conversation especially when they are not of compatible ABC (Attitude, Behavior,Character).

But not on this conversation. We’ve had it. I’ve had it.

We humans always seem to take a manipulative posture. No matter what the particulars of the situation, or the subject matter, we prepare ourselves to say whatever we want in order to prevail in the...

Conversations are like dances. Two people effortlessly move in step with one another, usually anticipating the other person’s next move. If one of the dancers moves in an unexpected direction, the other typically adapts and...

At some point, one asks, “Toward what end is my life lived?” A great freedom comes from being able to answer that question. A sleeper can be decoyed out of bed by the sheer beauty...

One never said the things one wanted — one remembered them all an hour afterwards. On the other hand one usually said a lot of things one shouldn’t, simply from a sense that one had...

It’s basically the same in all periods of societies. If you belong to the majority, you can avoid thinking about lots of troubling things.”And those troubling things are all you /can/ think about when you’re...

The unsaid rules every conversation.

The cheapest route to a new opportunity is conversation.

…I only told you about it because I thought I might get a laugh out of you for once even if it wasn’t the truth, Jessie. Things don’t have to be true to talk about...

I wanted to listen to him, but I did not want to answer now. That strange responsibility we feel towards others when they speak, to offer them the solace of any answer. Poor humans! And...

Whenever Percy stopped by to see [Annabeth], she was so lost in thought that the conversation went something like this:Percy: ‘Hey, how’s it going?’Annabeth: ‘Uh, no thanks.’Percy: ‘Okay…have you eaten anything today?’Annabeth: ‘I think Leo...

More of your conversation would infect my brain.

I don’t know where we’d be without him. That’s not conversation. That’s a fact. He has that kind of impact on the people around him.

If you chose Option 2 [confrontation], you did well. People will be less likely to engage you in office small talk of any kind, but that’s likely a benefit when you consider the fact that...

When you talk to a sympathetic mind about technology, gender, age, and experience disappear completely, and soon you’re one-on-one with the topic at hand.

If body language is 90% of a conversation, then obviously what’s being said is only half as important as what’s not being said. And what are you saying? I can’t hear you when my back...

Turn the fan off when I’m talking. It not only makes my words colder, but it distorts and dilutes what I’m saying.

Get a watermelon, draw a face on it, and talk to it before making love to it.

But before she tells you anything.” I glared at him suspiciously.”your seed…”Tsaeb winced.”What the hell are you talking about?””your…well, your seed. You know, you have to knock her up.

Want to play hangman? asks Theophile, and I ache to tell him that I have enough on my plate playing quadriplegic. But my communication system disqualifies repartee: the keenest rapier grows dull and falls flat...

He disliked contradiction, and still more, arguments that were continually skipping from one thing to another, introducing new and disconnected points, so that there was no knowing to which to reply.

Words were few and failing between them as though the silence that sat with them had laid its old lips on theirs and sucked them dry of speech. For where could one begin? With the...

Berg paid his way with stories.

The people who ask questions decide the quality of their conversation.

Sometimes when it looks like I’m deep in thought I’m just trying not to have a conversation with people.

CONVERSATION is the vehicle for change.

He was like a man who had served a term in prison or had been to Harvard College or had left for a long time with foreigners in South America. He was like a person...

How often have I noticed or, indeed, listened to him? We talk, but do I actually listen, or is our conversation mainly a question of my waiting for him to stop and for it to...

We men are fascinated by the things we don’t really understand. It gives us something to think and talk about: like females, they drive us nuts.

He had never imagined so clearly the consequences of mailing a letter–the impossibility of retrieving it from the iron mouth of the box; the inevitability if its steady progress through the postal system; the passing...

I remember my first cell phone number still. I may call it and ask to speak to myself from eight years ago. If they say I have the wrong number I’ll tell them, No, right...

It’s not polite to talk with your mouth full of food.

It comes down to this: If you want to be seen, heard and understood in the most genuine way possible, be open to the possiblity of vulnerability. Allow yourself to be open. I know it’s...

If a conversation is not working, then you need to make a different choice. Stop what you are doing & do something different.

At some point in my early forties I realized that my primary goal in just about any verbal exchange is to lighten the mood.

So you have something important to say, so you interrupt an exciting conversation already in progress just to let us know you have nothing to contribute to the discussion. Umm….

We are prepared to have a conversation with Iran in which we would explain and make clear our concerns about … Iranian activity in Iraq.

Most people he knew, his wife included, wouldn’t make it through an hour on the promise of four sentences. But Frankie Bard was like a camel. She could hold her words for days–as long as...

Every person has something meaningful to say in the conversation of life.

There is conversation that over the next ten years, hedge funds would become like mutual funds, … There is some merit to that conversation, but I think there might be some lag time.

He’s never quite got the trick of conversation, tending to hear in dissenting views, however mild, a kind of affront, an invitation to mortal combat.

The conversation was one-sided. She was doing all the talking, and every time I opened my mouth it wasn’t to reply—it was to yawn.

Madam: Are you lucky, Debora?Debora: What do you mean?Madam: Well, you don’t look that happy today…Debora: Is it that clear?

No, it was nice to finally meet someone whose arrogance isonly rivaled by the arrogance of the gods.