Quotes about conversation

"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."

Post, Emily on conversation   

"It is not what we learn in conversation that enriches us. It is the elation that comes of swift contact with tingling currents of thought."

Repplier, Agnes on conversation   

"Can we talk?"

Rivers, Joan on conversation   

"It's apparent that we can't proceed any further without a name for this institutionalized garrulousness, this psychological patter, this need to catalogue the ego's condition. Let's call it psychobabble, this spirit which now tyrannizes conversation in the seventies."

Rosen, Richard D. on conversation   

"Say nothing good of yourself, you will be distrusted; say nothing bad of yourself, you will be taken at your word."

Roux, Joseph on conversation
4 fans of this quote   

"Not only to say the right thing in the right place, but far more difficult, to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment."

Sala, George on conversation   

"The primary use of conversation is to satisfy the impulse to talk."

Santayana, George on conversation   

"Conversation has a kind of charm about it, an insinuating and insidious something that elicits secrets just like love or liquor."

Seneca on conversation   

"Conversation should be pleasant without scurrility, witty without affection, free without indecency, learned without conceitedness, novel without falsehood."

Shakespeare, William on conversation
4 fans of this quote   

"She has lost the art of conversation, but not, unfortunately, the power of speech."

Shaw, George Bernard on conversation   

"Never talk for half a minute without pausing and giving others a chance to join in."

Smith, Sydney on conversation   

"The techniques of opening conversation are universal. I knew long ago and rediscovered that the best way to attract attention, help, and conversation is to be lost. A man who seeing his mother starving to death on a path kicks her in the stomach to clear the way, will cheerfully devote several hours of his time giving wrong directions to a total stranger who claims to be lost."

Steinbeck, John on conversation   

"One of the very best rules of conversation is to never, say anything which any of the company wish had been left unsaid."

Swift, Jonathan on conversation   

"The first ingredient in conversation is truth, the next good sense, the third good humor, and the fourth wit."

Temple, Sir William on conversation   

"An American cannot converse, but he can discuss, and his talk falls into a dissertation. He speaks to you as if he was addressing a meeting; and if he should chance to become warm in the discussion, he will say Gentlemen to the person with whom he is conversing."

Tocqueville, Alexis De on conversation   

"A good memory and a tongue tied in the middle is a combination which gives immortality to conversation."

Twain, Mark on conversation   

"Conversation is an exercise of the mind; gossip is merely an exercise of the tongue."

Unknown, Source on conversation
4 fans of this quote   

"There is no such thing as conversation. It is an illusion. There are intersecting monologues, that is all."

West, Rebecca on conversation
9 fans of this quote   

"If other people are going to talk, conversation becomes impossible."

Whistler, James Mcneill on conversation   

"Talk to every woman as if you loved her, and to every man as if he bored you, and at the end of your first season you will have the reputation of possessing the most perfect social tact."

Wilde, Oscar on conversation
9 fans of this quote   

"Conversation should touch everything, but should concentrate itself on nothing."

Wilde, Oscar on conversation   

"Talking to Laren is like smoking weed: you feel good for a while, but then you feel retarded because you realize you lost brain cells in the process."

van, Zanten, Quinn on conversation   

"Everybody talks, but there is no conversation. "

Stojanovic, Dejan on conversation