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

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

The mark of a true politician is that he is never at a loss for words because he is always half-expecting to be asked to make a speech.

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.

A remark generally hurts in proportion to its truth.

Early on, when I was quite young and going from job to job, I was foolish enough to sometimes speak to my fellow workers: ‚Hey, the boss can come in here at any moment and lay all of us off, just like that, don’t you realize that?‘ They would just look at me. I was posing something that they didn’t want to enter their minds.

The human wish to credit good things as miraculous and to charge bad things to another account is apparently universal.

The quality of moral behavior varies in inverse ratio to the number of human beings involved.

It’s funny because I’ve made a living off of words, but words get in the way of what you really want to say.

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.

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

Countries which receive aid do graduate. Within a generation, Korea went from being a big recipient to being a big aid donor. China used to get quite a bit of aid; now it’s aid-neutral.

Listen to many, speak to a few.

Dialogue means debates and everyone’s point of view.

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

A ratio of failures is built into the process of writing. The wastebasket has evolved for a reason.

I’m a great believer that any tool that enhances communication has profound effects in terms of how people can learn from each other, and how they can achieve the kind of freedoms that they’re interested in.

Silence is the most perfect expression of scorn.

Words may show a man’s wit but actions his meaning.

People use irony as a defense mechanism.

On TV the people can see it. On radio you’ve got to create it.

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’m not very articulate.

Eloquence is a painting of the thoughts.

I maintain that, if everyone knew what others said about him, there would not be four friends in the world.

The effect of power and publicity on all men is the aggravation of self, a sort of tumor that ends by killing the victim’s sympathies.

I grew up cursing a lot. It felt natural. My parents told me to stop.

We have language and they do not. Chimps communicate by embracing, patting, looking – all these things. And they have lots of sounds. But they cannot sit and discuss. They cannot teach about things that are not present, as far as we know.

We are all geniuses up to the age of ten.

The superior man is modest in his speech, but exceeds in his actions.

To God everything is beautiful, good, and just; humans, however, think some things are unjust and others just.

People that seem so glorious are all show; underneath they are like everyone else.

Man’s unhappiness, as I construe, comes of his greatness; it is because there is an Infinite in him, which with all his cunning he cannot quite bury under the Finite.

A good leader can engage in a debate frankly and thoroughly, knowing that at the end he and the other side must be closer, and thus emerge stronger. You don’t have that idea when you are arrogant, superficial, and uninformed.

I don’t write letters anymore.

Man seems to be capable of great virtues but not of small virtues; capable of defying his torturer but not of keeping his temper.

There are some people, you know, they think the way to be a big man is to shout and stomp and raise hell-and then nothing ever really happens. I’m not like that I never shoot blanks.

Advertising works most effectively when it’s in line with what people are already trying to do. And people are trying to communicate in a certain way on Facebook – they share information with their friends, they learn about what their friends are doing – so there’s really a whole new opportunity for a new type of advertising model within that.

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

Let us make a special effort to stop communicating with each other, so we can have some conversation.

We have two ears and one tongue so that we would listen more and talk less.

Man alone is born crying, lives complaining, and dies disappointed.

Words are cheap. The biggest thing you can say is ‚elephant‘.

If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.

Questions are never indiscreet, answers sometimes are.

Letters are something from you. It’s a different kind of intention than writing an e-mail.

So far is it from being true that men are naturally equal, that no two people can be half an hour together, but one shall acquire an evident superiority over the other.

The essence of lying is in deception, not in words.

Oh the nerves, the nerves; the mysteries of this machine called man! Oh the little that unhinges it, poor creatures that we are!

I know from having had a child, and from having been a child myself, that children will copy you.

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

Honest disagreement is often a good sign of progress.

There is precious little in civilization to appeal to a Yeti.

It is very hard to not be able to engage with people in a real and honest way because they either want something from me, or they see me as something that I simply am not.

A wonderful fact to reflect upon, that every human creature is constituted to be that profound secret and mystery to every other.

Always be sincere, even if you don’t mean 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.

What is human warfare but just this; an effort to make the laws of God and nature take sides with one party.

All experience is an arch, to build upon.

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

Tell the truth, but tell it slant.