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.

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

The most successful politician is he who says what the people are thinking most often in the loudest voice.

Human beings need stories, and we’re looking for them in all kinds of places; whether it’s television, whether it’s comic books or movies, radio plays, whatever form, people are hungry for stories.

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.

I guess the toughest things in translations are word play, which can never be reproduced exactly.

Children wish fathers looked but with their eyes; fathers that children with their judgment looked; and either may be wrong.

He that would live in peace and at ease must not speak all he knows or all he sees.

Our heritage and ideals, our code and standards – the things we live by and teach our children – are preserved or diminished by how freely we exchange ideas and feelings.

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.

I’m convinced of this: Good done anywhere is good done everywhere. For a change, start by speaking to people rather than walking by them like they’re stones that don’t matter. As long as you’re breathing, it’s never too late to do some good.

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

All my stepchildren carried the burden of my fame. Sometimes they would read terrible things about me, and I’d worry about whether it would hurt them. I would tell them: ‚Don’t hide these things from me. I’d rather you ask me these things straight out, and I’ll answer all your questions.‘

I’ve always regretted that I never was able to talk openly with my parents, especially with my father. I’ve heard and read so many things about my family that I can no longer believe anything; every relative I question has a completely different story from the last.

The Internet is just another experiment showing us more sides of us.

War had always seemed to me to be a purely human behavior. Accounts of warlike behavior date back to the very first written records of human history; it seemed to be an almost universal characteristic of human groups.

I like to speak on matters which matter to human beings, and almost everything matters to human beings.

A friend should be a master at guessing and keeping still: you must not want to see everything.

Words mean more than what is set down on paper. It takes the human voice to infuse them with deeper meaning.

To me, constructive criticism is when people take ownership of their ideas. That’s why I don’t listen to anything that’s anonymous. But it’s hard; when there’s something hurtful out there, I still want to read it over and over and memorize it and explain my point of view to the person.

Certainly, if you look at human behavior around the world, you have to admit that we can be very aggressive.

It’s considered acceptable in our culture to approach perfect strangers, as often or not who may be in extremis, and evangelise. I don’t see why that’s considered a normal thing.

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

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.

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

You’re never going to kill storytelling, because it’s built into the human plan. We come with it.

Never give an order that can’t be obeyed.

We often refuse to accept an idea merely because the tone of voice in which it has been expressed is unsympathetic to us.

If the tongue had not been framed for articulation, man would still be a beast in the forest.

Speaking English is like tongue-twist for me. I can speak each word perfect, but then you have to string them together like, ‚Blah, blah, blah.‘ That’s when I get crazy.

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.‘

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.

When the people we love stop paying attention, trust begins to slip away and hurt starts seeping in.

In the normal flow of a conversation, our attention is divided. We hear parts of what other people are saying, in order to follow and keep the conversation going. At the same time, we’re planning what we’ll say next, some exciting story of our own.

Physical contact is a human necessity.

Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction.

Silence is one of the great arts of conversation.

The difference between a stranger sending you a message that you might be interested in at a very low volume level, no repetition, just sending it to very few people, and that being done as spam – those things get close enough that you want to be careful never to filter out something that’s legitimate.

The more you are talked about the less powerful you are.

Use what language you will, you can never say anything but what you are.

To conceal anything from those to whom I am attached, is not in my nature. I can never close my lips where I have opened my heart.

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.‘

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

Smiles are the language of love.

I’m terrified of losing my voice.

I am not one who – who flamboyantly believes in throwing a lot of words around.

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

I’m guarded; I don’t talk much.

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.

Good leaders must communicate vision clearly, creatively, and continually. However, the vision doesn’t come alive until the leader models it.

If the present Congress errs in too much talking, how can it be otherwise in a body to which the people send one hundred and fifty lawyers, whose trade it is to question everything, yield nothing, and talk by the hour?

Better understated than overstated. Let people be surprised that it was more than you promised and easier than you said.

When words are scarce they are seldom spent in vain.

If you wish to know the mind of a man, listen to his words.

I wish I could shut up, but I can’t, and I won’t.

When I take my kid to school, all the parents stop and stare.

I don’t have any oratory skills. But I would not use them if I had.

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

The language of friendship is not words but meanings.

People respond in accordance to how you relate to them. If you approach them on the basis of violence, that’s how they’ll react. But if you say, ‚We want peace, we want stability,‘ we can then do a lot of things that will contribute towards the progress of our society.

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.