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

Saying nothing… sometimes says the most.

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

Words are loaded pistols.

You have to make sure you know why you are going to war and then use decisive force to end it as soon as possible.

All slang is metaphor, and all metaphor is poetry.

You’ve got to work things out in the cloakroom, and when you’ve got them worked out, you can debate a little before you vote.

Music helps me tell my story. That’s where I can really be heard. But there’s so much focus on the things that aren’t music.

When will mankind be convinced and agree to settle their difficulties by arbitration?

I’ll be glad to reply to or dodge your questions, depending on what I think will help our election most.

Discretion of speech is more than eloquence, and to speak agreeably to him with whom we deal is more than to speak in good words, or in good order.

Rhetoric may be defined as the faculty of observing in any given case the available means of persuasion. This is not a function of any other art.

I am confident my Hindutva face will be an asset when dealing with foreign affairs with other nations.

I like learning more about people; I like to talk to people.

I like the way the stories of my relationships sound to music more than the way they look in print, in gossip columns or in me talking about them in interviews. I think it’s a better way of telling the stories.

An intellectual is a man who takes more words than necessary to tell more than he knows.

Instead of stubbornly attempting to use surrealism for purposes of subversion, it is necessary to try to make of surrealism something as solid, complete and classic as the works of museums.

Speeches that are measured by the hour will die with the hour.

Extremely religious, legalistic people have a criticism or judgment about everyone and everything. They just have a way of bringing people down with what they say.

We know that dictators are quick to choose aggression, while free nations strive to resolve differences in peace.

In human intercourse the tragedy begins, not when there is misunderstanding about words, but when silence is not understood.

It is hardly an exaggeration to say that oral teachers and sign teachers found it difficult to sit down in the same room without quarreling, and there was intolerance upon both sides. To say ‚oral method‘ to a sign teacher was like waving a red flag in the face of a bull, and to say ‚sign language‘ to an oralist aroused the deepest resentment.

When I look at public opinion, I’m not far out of the mainstream. I’m in it, in many respects. In some respects, public opinion goes beyond anything I’ve ever said.

I’ve started doing book reviews for Barnes & Noble! They saw that I did a lot of book reviews on the site, and they figured that it might not be a bad thing if they got me to do some for them as well. I gave them five categories I’d be interested in reviewing, from art to fiction to music.

Politics is the art of controlling your environment.

So vast is art, so narrow human wit.

It’s tough to negotiate from a position of weakness.

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

There is only one thing in life worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.

I don’t think I’d ever apologise for music I make, no.

Smiles are the language of love.

People who know little are usually great talkers, while men who know much say little.

Never pick a fight with people who buy ink by the barrel.

We should not fight wars without a clearly defined end state… when you go to war, it can’t be a half-step.

I never desire to converse with a man who has written more than he has read.

All wars signify the failure of conflict resolution mechanisms, and they need post-war rebuilding of faith, trust and confidence.

Of course, like anybody I repeat myself endlessly, but I don’t know that I’m doing it, usually.

Most negotiators are trying to get their way.

I don’t think it is so difficult to solve the problems between Cuba and the United States; it all depends on whether there is a dialogue, a discussion, or if the prejudices and hatred of people like the extremists and terrorists from the Cuban community, who try to impose their policies, prevail.

Passive aggressors who are adept at this will have trained themselves to remain calm, while you get irritated and emotional.

I would rather try to persuade a man to go along, because once I have persuaded him, he will stick. If I scare him, he will stay just as long as he is scared, and then he is gone.

Talking, it seemed to me, was the point of adult existence.

The royal road to a man’s heart is to talk to him about the things he treasures most.

You never need an argument against the use of violence, you need an argument for it.

Part of what made the Macintosh great was that the people working on it were musicians, poets, and artists, and zoologists, and historians. They also happened to be the best computer scientists in the world. But if it hadn’t been computer science, these people would have been doing amazing things in other fields.

Understanding is a two-way street.

When our governments want to sell us a course of action, they do it by making sure it’s the only thing on the agenda, the only thing everyone’s talking about. And they pre-load the ensuing discussion with highly selected images, devious and prejudicial language, dubious linkages, weak or false ‚intelligence‘ and selected ‚leaks.‘

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

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

The only excuse for war is that we may live in peace unharmed.

It is our duty still to endeavor to avoid war; but if it shall actually take place, no matter by whom brought on, we must defend ourselves. If our house be on fire, without inquiring whether it was fired from within or without, we must try to extinguish it.

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

I would impress upon your minds the fact that if you want to do a man justice, you should believe what a man says himself rather than what people say he says.

I think that both parties should declare the debt limit as a political weapon of mass destruction which can’t be used. I mean, it is silly to have a country that has 237 years building up its reputation and then have people threaten to tear it down because they’re not getting some other matter.

I could hardly sit through ‚Frozen.‘ There was an attempt to craft a moral message and to build the story around that, instead of building the story and letting the moral message emerge. It was the subjugation of art to propaganda, in my estimation.

If the other person injures you, you may forget the injury; but if you injure him you will always remember.

I’ve always been amazed by Da Vinci, because he worked out science on his own. He would work by drawing things and writing down his ideas. Of course, he designed all sorts of flying machines way before you could actually build something like that.

Occasionally I’ve seen children become heavy-handed and insensitive when dealing with their aging parents, and it only caused resentment and hard feelings.

I went into the business for the money, and the art grew out of it. If people are disillusioned by that remark, I can’t help it. It’s the truth.

Masterpieces are not single and solitary births; they are the outcome of many years of thinking in common, of thinking by the body of the people, so that the experience of the mass is behind the single voice.

Until I began to learn to draw, I was never much interested in looking at art.