I’m modern because I make the difficult seem easy, and so I can communicate with the whole world.

FaceTime helps me a lot. I feel like I’m at home even though I’m not.

If you can’t answer a man’s arguments, all is not lost; you can still call him vile names.

‚Good English‘ is whatever educated people talk; so that what is good in one place or time would not be so in another.

Part of what confuses people in times of upheaval is that you’re getting so many different points of view and directions and so and so, how to do this and do that. And a lot of it is written in a language that honestly most people cannot understand.

Just as the humble, unassuming, assenting ‚O.K.‘ has deposed the more affirmative ‚Yes,‘ so the little cringe and hesitation and approximation of ‚like‘ are a help to young people who are struggling to negotiate the shoals and rapids of ethnic identity, the street, and general correctness.

I boldly assert, in fact I think I know, that a lot of friendships and connections absolutely depend upon a sort of shared language, or slang. Not necessarily designed to exclude others, this can establish a certain comity and, even after a long absence, re-establish it in a second.

People who have given us their complete confidence believe that they have a right to ours. The inference is false, a gift confers no rights.

I have a family, loving aunts, and a good home. No, on the surface I seem to have everything except my one true friend. All I think about when I’m with friends is having a good time. I can’t bring myself to talk about anything but ordinary everyday things. We don’t seem to be able to get any closer, and that’s the problem.

Words are but the signs of ideas.

But behavior in the human being is sometimes a defense, a way of concealing motives and thoughts, as language can be a way of hiding your thoughts and preventing communication.

To a guy like me, a laugh is full of information.

Always make those above you feel comfortably superior. In your desire to please or impress them, do not go too far in displaying your talents or you might accomplish the opposite – inspire fear and insecurity.

I want to let you in on a little secret: I don’t always feel like I’m a success. That’s right. There are plenty of times when I feel like I’ve just totally messed up and failed to connect with the people I’m trying to communicate with.

I’m the most boring person to talk to.

The true triumph of reason is that it enables us to get along with those who do not possess it.

The most important single ingredient in the formula of success is knowing how to get along with people.

The writing is important, but the way you say the line and the pause you give it, the facial expression – all of that is very important.

Listening has importance only when one is not projecting one’s own desires through which one listens.

I don’t say very much I don’t really think through. I know that sounds inconsistent with Joe Biden.

If one does not understand a person, one tends to regard him as a fool.

I am an introvert; privately I am very shy, and I don’t speak unless I have to.

If you can speak what you will never hear, if you can write what you will never read, you have done rare things.

People often think I’m a faker, but I’m usually honest, in a certain way – in such a way that often nobody believes me!

I’m a great believer that any tool that enhances communication has profound effects in terms of how people can learn from each other, and how they can achieve the kind of freedoms that they’re interested in.

Listen to many, speak to a few.

The first time you say something, it’s heard. The second time, it’s recognized, and the third time it’s learned.

If you make listening and observation your occupation you will gain much more than you can by talk.

I haven’t gone out of my way to seek advice from people I don’t know.

I like to listen. I have learned a great deal from listening carefully. Most people never listen.

I’m guarded; I don’t talk much.

It may be the part of a friend to rebuke a friend’s folly.

When I tell a child something the first time, I’m nice. The 15th time, I start to get aggravated.

Smiles are the language of love.

If I’m in a political argument, I think I can, with reasonable accuracy and without boasting, put the other person’s side of the case at least as well as they could. One has to be able to say that in any well-conducted argument.

Talk that does not end in any kind of action is better suppressed altogether.

As soon as I arrived in the Indies, in the first island which I found, I took some of the natives by force, in order that they might learn and might give me information of whatever there is in these parts. And so it was that they soon understood us, and we them, either by speech or by signs, and they have been very serviceable.

I have my own vocabulary. I love linguistics. That surprises people.

Humans cannot avoid trying to influence others. Everything we say or do is examined and interpreted by others for clues as to our intentions.

Silence is more eloquent than words.

When you have good friends you’ve been around, every time they talk, you don’t give them your full attention. You don’t look them in the eye and stop. Half the time, you’re listening, half the time, you are ignoring them.

Those who cannot understand how to put their thoughts on ice should not enter into the heat of debate.

In my neighborhood, when you’ve got something to say to a guy, you look him in the eye and you say it to him.

Facebook and Instagram are both really popular with teens, both in the U.S. and globally across the world. I think what you’re starting to see is that there are all these different ways that people want to share and communicate.

We were the first generation to have to deal with the modern stardom of football. Some handled it better than others.

Suit the action to the word, the word to the action.

Before a man speaks it is always safe to assume that he is a fool. After he speaks, it is seldom necessary to assume it.

Ever since Newton, we’ve done science by taking things apart to see how they work. What the computer enables us to do is to put things together to see how they work: we’re now synthesized rather than analysed. I find one of the most enthralling aspects of computers is limitless communication.

In one case out of a hundred a point is excessively discussed because it is obscure; in the ninety-nine remaining it is obscure because it is excessively discussed.

The greatest compliment that was ever paid me was when one asked me what I thought, and attended to my answer.

Sometimes when you take strong stands, if you’re not called to do it, you’re dividing the audience you’re trying to reach.

To me, it’s OK to have differences. But we don’t have to be mad about it. You know? And I think that’s where sometimes we get so passionate that we – you know, it turns into anger.

If you do not understand a man you cannot crush him. And if you do understand him, very probably you will not.

In order that all men may be taught to speak the truth, it is necessary that all likewise should learn to hear it.

Almost everybody will listen to you when you tell your own story.

I don’t need therapy. I’m not going to see a therapist; comedy acts as my therapy. I put my problems out there. I talk about them. I talk about everything before anybody has a chance.

Diplomacy is the art of saying ‚Nice doggie‘ until you can find a rock.

Do not tell fish stories where the people know you; but particularly, don’t tell them where they know the fish.

If you must speak ill of another, do not speak it, write it in the sand near the water’s edge.

Truthful words are not beautiful; beautiful words are not truthful. Good words are not persuasive; persuasive words are not good.

Nobody’s ever said that pins are a tool of diplomacy.