When you meet with someone and you try to assess whether they’re telling you the truth or not, there’s several things you can do. You judge demeanor and credibility. You look at corroboration.

It is my ambition to say in ten sentences what others say in a whole book.

Be as polite to the custodian as you are to the chairman of the board.

I don’t want to spend the rest of my life giving speeches.

You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you.

How can a president not be an actor?

You know, you can make a small mistake in language or etiquette in Britain, or you could when I was younger, and really be made to feel it, and it’s the flick of a lash, but it would sting, and especially at school where there’s not much privacy, and so on. You could, yes, undoubtedly be made to feel crushed.

I’m not very articulate.

I don’t do meetings.

There are some who speak well and write badly. For the place and the audience warm them, and draw from their minds more than they think of without that warmth.

When things haven’t gone well for you, call in a secretary or a staff man and chew him out. You will sleep better and they will appreciate the attention.

Conflict cannot survive without your participation.

I don’t think people are going to talk in the future. They’re going to communicate through eye contact, body language, emojis, signs.

I have learned to interface – what I think would be the contemporary term – with various different lexicons, and people speak very different languages. I’ve learned to speak in a lot of tongues, and I can live with the bellicose language of some fervent, fire-breathing Christians, sure.

A master performer like Bill Clinton never lost sight of the fact that as president he had to project confidence and power, but if he was speaking to a group of autoworkers he would adjust his accent and his words to fit the audience, and do the same for a group of executives.

The only way to get the best of an argument is to avoid it.

Always remember that your calmness under fire is your best defense in any argument or discussion.

The most important thing for a director is being able to communicate.

Reacting in anger or annoyance will not advance one’s ability to persuade.

It usually takes me more than three weeks to prepare a good impromptu speech.

I go onstage and I talk, and I remember what I’m saying, and I track it.

Resist the need to be ‚right‘ all the time or to always have the last word.

Listen with the intent to understand, not the intent to reply.

I’m just preparing my impromptu remarks.

I really think that there was a great advantage in many ways to being a woman. I think we are a lot better at personal relationships, and then have the capability obviously of telling it like it is when it’s necessary.

Talkers are usually more articulate than doers, since talk is their specialty.

Talk low, talk slow and don’t say too much.

Respond intelligently even to unintelligent treatment.

Some years ago I became president of Columbia University and learned within 24 hours to be ready to speak at the drop of a hat, and I learned something more, the trustees were expected to be ready to speak at the passing of the hat.

A person standing in front of an audience without enthusiasm for his subject and his actions is disconnected from his spirit.

In retrospect, I can see I couldn’t talk to people face to face, so I got on stage and started screaming and squealing and twitching about. Ha! Like, that sure made sense!

One of the issues I kept saying to my students is you have to learn to interrupt. When you raise your hand at a meeting, by the time they get to you, the point is not germane. So the bottom line is active listening. If you are going to interrupt, you look for opportunities. You have to know what you’re talking about.

That sort of half sigh, which, accompanied by two or three slight nods of the head, is pity’s small change in general society.

A man’s face as a rule says more, and more interesting things, than his mouth, for it is a compendium of everything his mouth will ever say, in that it is the monogram of all this man’s thoughts and aspirations.

People generally quarrel because they cannot argue.

Take advantage of every opportunity to practice your communication skills so that when important occasions arise, you will have the gift, the style, the sharpness, the clarity, and the emotions to affect other people.

Listen with your eyes for feelings.

The trouble with her is that she lacks the power of conversation but not the power of speech.

I’m not a person that socializes very well.

I’ve been known to preach.

When it comes to knowing what to say, to charm, I always had it.

Remember 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.

I thought my life was mapped out. Research, living in the forest, teaching and writing. But in ’86 I went to a conference and realised the chimpanzees were disappearing. I had worldwide recognition and a gift of communication. I had to use them.

When I looked at the third base coach, he turned his back on me.

One may sometimes tell a lie, but the grimace that accompanies it tells the truth.

When Caroline Kennedy managed to say ‚you know‘ more than 200 times in an interview with the New York ‚Daily News,‘ and on 130 occasions while talking to ‚The New York Times‘ during her uninspired attempt to become a hereditary senator, she proved, among other things, that she was (a) middle-aged and (b) middle class.

If you have an important point to make, don’t try to be subtle or clever. Use a pile driver. Hit the point once. Then come back and hit it again. Then hit it a third time – a tremendous whack.

When angry count to ten before you speak. If very angry, count to one hundred.

Women have to be active listeners and interrupters – but when you interrupt, you have to know what you are talking about.

Eventually you get to this point where you understand what you want to do and get across and sound like.

If one could only teach the English how to talk, and the Irish how to listen, society here would be quite civilized.

When people talk, listen completely. Most people never listen.

In making a speech one must study three points: first, the means of producing persuasion; second, the language; third the proper arrangement of the various parts of the speech.

I don’t even know how to speak up for myself, because I don’t really have a father who would give me the confidence or advice.

Transforming yourself into a deep listener will not only prove more amusing as you open your mind to their mind, but you will gain the most invaluable lessons about human psychology.

No one wants advice – only corroboration.

No one can lie, no one can hide anything, when he looks directly into someone’s eyes.

A man may speak very well in the House of Commons, and fail very completely in the House of Lords. There are two distinct styles requisite: I intend, in the course of my career, if I have time, to give a specimen of both.

Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man.

In the television age, the key distinction is between the candidate who can speak poetry and the one who can only speak prose.

Example is leadership.