But if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought.

I think, a lot of times when you meet someone, you feel like you need to appear like you’re not interested in them so that they’ll be more interested in you. But what happens when you start showing him that you actually like him? What’s he gonna do then? Play the tape forward; how do you keep a guy like that? I don’t want to sign up for that.

All slang is metaphor, and all metaphor is poetry.

Corruption is a cancer: a cancer that eats away at a citizen’s faith in democracy, diminishes the instinct for innovation and creativity; already-tight national budgets, crowding out important national investments. It wastes the talent of entire generations. It scares away investments and jobs.

We think when God speaks to us, there’s going to be a boom out of Heaven or we’re going to get some chill bumps, but I really believe God’s talking to us all the time. He’s talking to us right in here. I call it our heart, our conscience, but it’s the Holy Spirit talking to us.

The influence of ‚Hidden Fortress‘ comes up a lot because it was printed in a book once. The truth is, the only thing I was inspired by was the fact that it’s told from the point of view of two peasants, who get mixed up with a samurai and princess and a lot of very high-level people.

I’m not always going to say things the perfect way, the right way. But I’m going to say how I feel.

Y’all are so cute and y’all talk so proper over here. I love England.

I think your values are always influenced by your family and your community.

There is nothing we like to communicate to others as much as the seal of secrecy together with what lies under it.

I sent one e-mail in my life. I sent it to Jeff Raikes at Microsoft, and it ended up in court in Minneapolis, so I am one for one.

If you pour your life into songs, you want them to be heard. It’s a desire to communicate. A deep desire to communicate inspires songwriting.

I do love email. Wherever possible I try to communicate asynchronously. I’m really good at email.

Whenever a husband and wife begin to discuss their marriage they are giving evidence at a coroner’s inquest.

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

I think humans are just hard-wired to process people’s faces and understand meaning and expression at such a more granular level than other types of communication.

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

Never be so brief as to become obscure.

I don’t think the Christian Right dominates America in the way some in the media believe they do.

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 let the dog out, or I let him in, and we talk some. I let him know I like him, and he lets me know he likes me.

A song has to take on character, shape, body and influence people to an extent that they use it for their own devices. It must affect them not just as a song, but as a lifestyle.

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

Anybody can be specific and obvious. That’s always been the easy way. It’s not that it’s so difficult to be unspecific and less obvious; it’s just that there’s nothing, absolutely nothing, to be specific and obvious about.

Success is always dangerous, and we need to be alert and avoid becoming the victims of our own success. Will we influence the world for Christ, or will the world influence us?

I believe that God has put gifts and talents and ability on the inside of every one of us. When you develop that and you believe in yourself and you believe that you’re a person of influence and a person of purpose, I believe you can rise up out of any situation.

At one time, you could sit on the Rue de la Paix in Paris or at the Habima Theater in Tel Aviv or in Medina and you could see a person come in, black, white, it didn’t matter. You said, ‚That’s an American‘ because there’s a readiness to smile and to talk to people.

Where there is shouting, there is no true knowledge.

All of the books in the world contain no more information than is broadcast as video in a single large American city in a single year. Not all bits have equal value.

I would say that jazz is my own language.

Married or single, you sisters possess distinctive capabilities and special intuition you have received as gifts from God. We brethren cannot duplicate your unique influence.

Marriage is a series of desperate arguments people feel passionately about.

My wife doesn’t even want to spend 2 hours with me.

I was born during the war and grew up in a time of rationing. We didn’t have anything. It’s influenced the way I look at the world.

Change happens by listening and then starting a dialogue with the people who are doing something you don’t believe is right.

Being a good listener is absolutely critical to being a good leader; you have to listen to the people who are on the front line.

Genius might be the ability to say a profound thing in a simple way.

Example is not the main thing in influencing others. It is the only thing.

Language is one component of the human cognitive capacity which happens to be fairly amenable to enquiry. So we know a good deal about that.

Fighting corruption is not just good governance. It’s self-defense. It’s patriotism.

We must distinguish between speaking to deceive and being silent to be reserved.

He who knows how to flatter also knows how to slander.

No matter what message you are about to deliver somewhere, whether it is holding out a hand of friendship, or making clear that you disapprove of something, is the fact that the person sitting across the table is a human being, so the goal is to always establish common ground.

I was also a junior and I know how you learn from seniors, that’s how you follow. Speeches don’t work.

You have to be careful about how much you reveal to people that look up to you so much.

Why a four-year-old child could understand this report. Run out and find me a four-year-old child. I can’t make head nor tail out of it.

Madonna, I think, is the greatest visual musical artist that we’ve ever had. If you look at her photo log, the photographers that she was able to work with throughout her career framed her in the proper way. It was the proper context. It was that visual that made sure that everything was gonna cut through in a certain way.

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

Next time I see you, remind me not to talk to you.

Never marry someone in hope that they’ll change later.

Motivation is the art of getting people to do what you want them to do because they want to do it.

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.

I talk to myself all the time. Just make sure you answer.

Thought is subversive and revolutionary, destructive and terrible, Thought is merciless to privilege, established institutions, and comfortable habit. Thought is great and swift and free.

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

If I’ve got a problem with one of my clients that needs to get solved, guess what I’m going to do? I’m going to call them up, and I’m going to say, ‚Hey, here’s what’s going on. This is the situation. This thing went sideways. I didn’t expect it. Now it’s going to take me some more time to get you what you need.‘ But I’m going to do that upfront.

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.

I don’t think I ever thought of myself as Superman. But there were people who thought of me that way, and maybe I believed them a little.

Listen to many, speak to a few.

I would be lying if I didn’t admit sadness that our wonderful airline is merging with another. Because I’m not American, the U.S. Department of Transportation stipulated I take some of my shares in Virgin America as non-voting shares, reducing my influence over any takeover. So there was sadly nothing I could do to stop it.

Good writing is like a windowpane.