If you can’t answer a man’s arguments, all is not lost; you can still call him vile names.

I once did a three-hour interview with Radio Oxford only to be told the microphone hadn’t picked me up.

Silence is more eloquent than words.

If you want to influence people, you want them to accept your suggestions, you don’t say, ‚You don’t know how to use the English language,‘ or ‚How could you make that argument?‘ It will be welcomed much more if you have a gentle touch than if you are aggressive.

I’m grateful for the opportunities God gave me to minister to people in high places; people in power have spiritual and personal needs like everyone else, and often they have no one to talk to.

People make suggestions on what to say all the time. I’ll give you an example; I don’t read what’s handed to me. People say, ‚Here, here’s your speech, or here’s an idea for a speech.‘ They’re changed. Trust me.

We don’t get to know people when they come to us; we must go to them to find out what they are like.

Constant kindness can accomplish much. As the sun makes ice melt, kindness causes misunderstanding, mistrust, and hostility to evaporate.

When your mother asks, ‚Do you want a piece of advice?‘ it is a mere formality. It doesn’t matter if you answer yes or no. You’re going to get it anyway.

Notifying the enemy in advance of our withdrawal dates or reassuring the enemy that we will not use certain capabilities like our ground forces should be avoided.

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

Those who cannot understand how to put their thoughts on ice should not enter into the heat of debate.

One thing that I tell people all the time is, ‚I’m not going to answer a call from you after nine o’clock at night or before nine o’clock in the morning unless it’s an emergency.‘

To find out your real opinion of someone, judge the impression you have when you first see a letter from them.

The finest language is mostly made up of simple unimposing words.

I’m guarded; I don’t talk much.

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.

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

Repartee is something we think of twenty-four hours too late.

So when you are listening to somebody, completely, attentively, then you are listening not only to the words, but also to the feeling of what is being conveyed, to the whole of it, not part of it.

Words do two major things: They provide food for the mind and create light for understanding and awareness.

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

I did my utmost to ensure that everyone below me in the chain of command felt comfortable approaching me with concerns, ideas, thoughts, and even disagreements.

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

I haven’t gone out of my way to seek advice from people I don’t know.

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

There are always three speeches, for every one you actually gave. The one you practiced, the one you gave, and the one you wish you gave.

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

Nothing is so unbelievable that oratory cannot make it acceptable.

I took the Canal Zone and let Congress debate; and while the debate goes on, the canal does also.

My name can’t be that tough to pronounce!

I’ll think I have a few wonderful friends and all of a sudden, ooh, here it comes. They do a lot of things. They talk about you to the press, to their friends, tell stories, and you know, it’s disappointing.

If you do not wish a man to do a thing, you had better get him to talk about it; for the more men talk, the more likely they are to do nothing else.

The question isn’t, ‚What do we want to know about people?‘, It’s, ‚What do people want to tell about themselves?‘

Many people listen to what I have to say and I appear a lot in media, so therefore I influence a lot of people and therefore I have a bigger responsibility because I have a bigger platform.

Don’t ever call a guy first. The thing they want the most is whatever they can’t have. It sounds really juvenile, but it works.

Always prefer the plain direct word to the long, vague one. Don’t implement promises, but keep them.

The kids never listen to you, especially the youngest ones.

You don’t tell deliberate lies, but sometimes you have to be evasive.

The only defensible war is a war of defense.

Resort is had to ridicule only when reason is against us.

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.

If we accept being talked to any kind of a way, then we are telling ourselves we are not quite worth the best. And if we have the effrontery to talk to anybody with less than courtesy, we tell ourselves and the world we are not very intelligent.

I have to be in tune. All the time. I have to be in tune with my husband, where he is, how he’s feeling. I have to be in tune with where my family is.

I don’t know how to work a room. It’s a real skill.

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

Mind your speech a little lest you should mar your fortunes.

Is it not important to find out how to listen not only to what is being said but to everything – to the noise in the streets, to the chatter of birds, to the noise of the tramcar, to the restless sea, to the voice of your husband, to your wife, to your friends, to the cry of a baby?

I remember the first time I heard a teenager say ‚LOL.‘ Just what? But it means ‚laugh.‘ Why don’t you just laugh? What are you doing?

Wars are, of course, as a rule to be avoided; but they are far better than certain kinds of peace.

It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt.

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.

What women need to understand is that men don’t communicate. It’s not intentional or on purpose. We’re just not as emotional. You ladies feel like you have to express yourselves.

My mother was Catholic, my father was Protestant. There was always a debate going on at home – I think in those days we called them arguments – about who was right and who was wrong.

‚Some Kind Of Monster‘ is such a nightmare for any musician to watch because you’re watching a band be honest to each other. Not a good idea, man!

Action speaks louder than words but not nearly as often.

The basic problems facing the world today are not susceptible to a military solution.

In Vegas, I got into a long argument with the man at the roulette wheel over what I considered to be an odd number.

You can be a little ungrammatical if you come from the right part of the country.

Words are more treacherous and powerful than we think.

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.