Always try to use the language so as to make quite clear what you mean and make sure your sentence couldn’t mean anything else.

Write in such a way as that you can be readily understood by both the young and the old, by men as well as women, even by children.

A state of society where men may not speak their minds cannot long endure.

Being politically correct means saying what’s polite rather than what’s accurate. I like to be accurate.

Tell the audience what you’re going to say, say it; then tell them what you’ve said.

In this experiment, made on the 9th of October, 1876, actual conversation, backwards and forwards, upon the same line, and by the same instruments reciprocally used, was successfully carried on for the first time upon a real line of miles in length.

Can the mind see the truth of its own incapacity to know the unknown? Surely if I see very clearly that my mind cannot know the unknown, there is absolute quietness.

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

I experience a period of frightening clarity in those moments when nature is so beautiful. I am no longer sure of myself, and the paintings appear as in a dream.

Counsel with your parents is a privilege at any age.

Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will.

Today, writers want to impress other writers.

A man is more frank and sincere with his emotions than a woman. We girls, I’m afraid, have a tendency to hide our feelings.

Children are remarkable for their intelligence and ardor, for their curiosity, their intolerance of shams, the clarity and ruthlessness of their vision.

In the end, people are persuaded not by what we say, but by what they 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.

What convinces is conviction. Believe in the argument you’re advancing. If you don’t you’re as good as dead. The other person will sense that something isn’t there, and no chain of reasoning, no matter how logical or elegant or brilliant, will win your case for you.

If you want what you’re saying heard, then take your time and say it so that the listener will actually hear it. You might save somebody’s life. Your own, first.

On the whole, we think of our consumers – other judges, lawyers, the public. The law that the Supreme Court establishes is the law that they must live by, so all things considered, it’s better to have it clearer than confusing.

Basketball is my passion, I love it. But my family and friends mean everything to me. That’s what’s important. I need my phone so I can keep in contact with them at all times.

Be generous with kindly words, especially about those who are absent.

Talking is a hydrant in the yard and writing is a faucet upstairs in the house. Opening the first takes the pressure off the second.

The secret to the movie business, or any business, is to get a good education in a subject besides film – whether it’s history, psychology, economics, or architecture – so you have something to make a movie about. All the skill in the world isn’t going to help you unless you have something to say.

A mother defends herself with a heart filled with love before doing so with words. I wonder whether there is any love for the church in the hearts of those who pay so much attention to the scandals.

The common thread for everything I do is this idea of a Web-services architecture. What does that mean? It means taking components of software and systems and having them be self-describing, so that you can aim them, ask them what their capabilities are, and communicate with them using a standard protocol.

Those who write clearly have readers, those who write obscurely have commentators.

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.

Anyone who says he can see through women is missing a lot.

Yes, I, well, when I write, as often as I can, I try to write as if I’m talking to people. It doesn’t always work, and one shouldn’t always try it, but I try and write as if I am talking, and trying to engage the reader in conversation.

In oratory the will must predominate.

My daughter doesn’t even get my humor. She’s like, ‚Um, no. I don’t get it, Dad. Mmm, no, not that one, Dad.‘

Many people find the universe confusing – it’s not.

When you really don’t like a guy, they’re all over you, and as soon as you act like you like them, they’re no longer interested.

Often, I can scarcely hear any one speaking to me; the tones yes, but not the actual words; yet as soon as any one shouts, it is unbearable. What will come of all this, heaven only knows!

You are not only responsible for what you say, but also for what you do not say.

We don’t get to know people when they come to us; we must go to them to find out what they are like.

You can tell more about a person by what he says about others than you can by what others say about him.

Well, the thing that I learned as a diplomat is that human relations ultimately make a huge difference.

If there is any one secret of success, it lies in the ability to get the other person’s point of view and see things from that person’s angle as well as from your own.

Humor is the first of the gifts to perish in a foreign tongue.

I did my utmost to ensure that everyone below me in the chain of command felt comfortable approaching me with concerns, ideas, thoughts, and even disagreements.

When I am getting ready to reason with a man, I spend one-third of my time thinking about myself and what I am going to say and two-thirds about him and what he is going to say.

I used to stutter really badly. Everybody thinks it’s funny. And it’s not funny. It’s not.

Whenever you’re in conflict with someone, there is one factor that can make the difference between damaging your relationship and deepening it. That factor is attitude.

There are many times when a woman will ask another girl friend how she likes her new hat. She will reply, ‚Fine,‘ but slap her hand to her forehead the minute the girl leaves to yipe, ‚What a horror!‘

There are a lot of self-imposed restrictions by people who somehow believe they have to fall in with a certain military cant. There was always a sense that we had to put things into words that would touch our troops‘ hearts, not just their heads.

When dealing with people, remember you are not dealing with creatures of logic, but creatures of emotion.

Great leaders are almost always great simplifiers, who can cut through argument, debate and doubt, to offer a solution everybody can understand.

Just talk to me as a father – not what the Constitution says. What do you feel?

I promised myself that I would write as well as I can, tell the truth, not to tell everything I know, but to make sure that everything I tell is true, as I understand it. And to use the eloquence which my language affords me.

It’s never happened in history that every region in the world could affect every other region simultaneously. The Roman empire and the Chinese empire didn’t know much about each other and had no means of interacting. Now we have every continent able to reach every other.

There is one way to have a short but exciting conversation with me, and that is to move too slow.

I don’t do Shakespeare. I don’t talk in that kind of broken English.

Some animals utter a loud cry. Some are silent, and others have a voice, which in some cases may be expressed by a word; in others, it cannot. There are also noisy animals and silent animals, musical and unmusical kinds, but they are mostly noisy about the breeding season.

I’m guarded; I don’t talk much.

I don’t mind how much my Ministers talk, so long as they do what I say.

I loved writing for kids, I loved talking to children about what I’d written, I don’t want to leave that behind.

I have an urge to communicate. I think I’m a change from what it would be like dating a normal guy who doesn’t talk too much.

If you’re really satisfied with your position on something, you just say, ‚Hey;‘ you just very calmly present something.

Honest disagreement is often a good sign of progress.

He who talks more is sooner exhausted.