Half the world is composed of people who have something to say and can’t, and the other half who have nothing to say and keep on saying it.

I always want to listen to people and receive good criticism, but I just don’t have to answer to them; I have to answer to God.

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

Speak the truth, and all things alive or brute are vouchers, and the very roots of the grass underground there, do seem to stir and move to bear you witness.

I can’t imagine what this place would be – I can’t imagine what the country would be – with Donald Trump as our president.

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.

The secret of being a bore… is to tell everything.

The poet, being an imitator like a painter or any other artist, must of necessity imitate one of three objects – things as they were or are, things as they are said or thought to be, or things as they ought to be. The vehicle of expression is language – either current terms or, it may be, rare words or metaphors.

I don’t know about you, but most of my exchanges with cashiers are not that meaningful.

If you want to know your true opinion of someone, watch the effect produced in you by the first sight of a letter from him.

Electric communication will never be a substitute for the face of someone who with their soul encourages another person to be brave and true.

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

Prayer is simply a two-way conversation between you and God.

Next to doing the right thing, the most important thing is to let people know you are doing the right thing.

Before I look stupid and not know what a word means or how to pronounce it, I’ll stop the whole production: ‚Hey, real quick, guys. Define this word for me. Somebody.‘

Hear reason, or she’ll make you feel her.

Verbosity leads to unclear, inarticulate things.

When people are connected, we can just do some great things. They have the opportunity to get access to jobs, education, health, communications. We have the opportunity to bring the people we care about closer to us. It really makes a big difference.

Arguments are to be avoided: they are always vulgar and often convincing.

The short words are best, and the old words are the best of all.

Silence is one of the great arts of conversation.

My first phone was two tin cans tied together with string, and it worked pretty good.

The difficulty with this conversation is that it’s very different from most of the ones I’ve had of late. Which, as I explained, have mostly been with trees.

I’m strictly for Stevenson. I don’t dig the intellectual bit, but I’m telling you, man, he knows the most.

My own experience is use the tools that are out there. Use the digital world. But never lose sight of the need to reach out and talk to other people who don’t share your view. Listen to them and see if you can find a way to compromise.

What do I think of Western civilization? I think it would be a very good idea.

To be clear: we have fights and problems like any other couple.

I try to speak in everyday language. I feel like God has gifted me to take Bible principles and make them practical.

My opinion is it’s a bridge too far to go to fully autonomous cars.

If you deny people their own voice, you’ll have no idea of who they were.

Before I speak, I have something important to say.

I’m going to save my public voice largely for the issues where I have some depth.

I don’t think there’s anything unique about human intelligence.

Much unhappiness has come into the world because of bewilderment and things left unsaid.

When I talked to him on the phone yesterday. I called him George rather than Mr. Vice President. But, in public, it’s Mr. Vice President, because that is who he is.

When marrying, ask yourself this question: Do you believe that you will be able to converse well with this person into your old age? Everything else in marriage is transitory.

I hate quotations. Tell me what you know.

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.

Peace comes when you talk to the guy you most hate. And that’s where the courage of a leader comes, because when you sit down with your enemy, you as a leader must already have very considerable confidence from your own constituency.

With all due respect, the Mona Lisa is overrated.

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.

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

It may be that the most striking thing about members of my literary generation in retrospect will be that we were allowed to say absolutely anything without fear of punishment.

The typewriting machine, when played with expression, is no more annoying than the piano when played by a sister or near relation.

The universal order and the personal order are nothing but different expressions and manifestations of a common underlying principle.

As we must account for every idle word, so must we account for every idle silence.

We have two ears and one mouth so that we can listen twice as much as we speak.

Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.

Silence is golden when you can’t think of a good answer.

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

I don’t understand why or how we can bully each other.

The poets have been mysteriously silent on the subject of cheese.

One day, I’ll be listening to a bunch of Ray Charles, the next day it’s nothing but Red Hot Chili Peppers. The next day it might be Tupac all day.

Talk to a man about himself and he will listen for hours.

The capability of negotiating… is something that means you not only have to understand fully what you believe and what your national interests are but in order to be a really good negotiator, you have to try to figure out what the other person on the other side of the table has in mind.

I became interested in folk music because I had to make it somehow.

I can easily imagine Obama sitting down and talking to any leader – or any person – in the world, with no baggage of past servitude or race supremacy to mar their talks.

I could talk all day, T stands for talking, T stands for tender, T stands for things that don’t even rhyme with T.

Communications technology changes possibilities for communication, but that doesn’t mean it changes the inherited structure of the brain. So you may think that you’re addicted to online reading, but as soon as it isn’t available anymore, your brain will pretty immediately adjust to other forms of reading. It’s a habit like all habits.

My favorite book is anything by Kurt Vonnegut – he’s my literary hero. I got to meet him several times, which was a great thrill for me. I don’t really remember what we talked about.

I am such a political person.