If you have an important point to make, don’t try to be subtle or clever. Use a pile driver. Hit the point once. Then come back and hit it again. Then hit it a third time – a tremendous whack.

Let us be absolutely clear about one thing: we must not confuse humility with false modesty or servility.

Before I refuse to take your questions, I have an opening statement.

I go onstage and I talk, and I remember what I’m saying, and I track it.

The more sand has escaped from the hourglass of our life, the clearer we should see through it.

It is good to express a thing twice right at the outset and so to give it a right foot and also a left one. Truth can surely stand on one leg, but with two it will be able to walk and get around.

Although our intellect always longs for clarity and certainty, our nature often finds uncertainty fascinating.

Always remember that your calmness under fire is your best defense in any argument or discussion.

The figure a poem makes. It begins in delight and ends in wisdom… in a clarification of life – not necessarily a great clarification, such as sects and cults are founded on, but in a momentary stay against confusion.

If you have God on your side, everything becomes clear.

The idea is to write it so that people hear it and it slides through the brain and goes straight to the heart.

Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man.

We would like a stable policy framework, and whatever incentives and tax structures are there should be made known to investors upfront. There should be credibility, clarity and continuity in both policy formulation and its implementation.

You know, you can make a small mistake in language or etiquette in Britain, or you could when I was younger, and really be made to feel it, and it’s the flick of a lash, but it would sting, and especially at school where there’s not much privacy, and so on. You could, yes, undoubtedly be made to feel crushed.

I have learned to interface – what I think would be the contemporary term – with various different lexicons, and people speak very different languages. I’ve learned to speak in a lot of tongues, and I can live with the bellicose language of some fervent, fire-breathing Christians, sure.

I experience a period of frightening clarity in those moments when nature is so beautiful. I am no longer sure of myself, and the paintings appear as in a dream.

I could never give relationship advice to anybody!

The most important thing for a director is being able to communicate.

If I am judged for my work, many myths about me as an autocrat or otherwise would become clearer. I feel false propaganda will not last, and truth will ultimately prevail.

When people talk, listen completely. Most people never listen.

The great enemy of clear language is insincerity. When there is a gap between one’s real and one’s declared aims, one turns, as it were, instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttlefish squirting out ink.

In an interconnected age when opportunistic adversaries can work in tandem to destroy stability and prosperity, our country needs to regain its strategic footing. We need to bring the clarity to our efforts before we lose the confidence of the American people and the support of potential allies.

Women have to be active listeners and interrupters – but when you interrupt, you have to know what you are talking about.

Part of the reason that our politics seems so tough right now and facts and science and argument does not seem to be winning the day all the time is because we’re hardwired not to always think clearly when we’re scared. And the country’s scared.

Conflict cannot survive without your participation.

A man does not know what he is saying until he knows what he is not saying.

Don’t use words too big for the subject. Don’t say ‚infinitely‘ when you mean ‚very‘; otherwise you’ll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite.

Some years ago I became president of Columbia University and learned within 24 hours to be ready to speak at the drop of a hat, and I learned something more, the trustees were expected to be ready to speak at the passing of the hat.

Resist the need to be ‚right‘ all the time or to always have the last word.

I used to tell my husband that, if he could make me ‚understand‘ something, it would be clear to all the other people in the country.

Suit the action to the word, the word to the action.

When angry count to ten before you speak. If very angry, count to one hundred.

No one ever doubts that I mean what I say. The problem is I sometimes say all that I mean.

When it comes to knowing what to say, to charm, I always had it.

The scientists of today think deeply instead of clearly. One must be sane to think clearly, but one can think deeply and be quite insane.

One of the issues I kept saying to my students is you have to learn to interrupt. When you raise your hand at a meeting, by the time they get to you, the point is not germane. So the bottom line is active listening. If you are going to interrupt, you look for opportunities. You have to know what you’re talking about.

It is my ambition to say in ten sentences what others say in a whole book.

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

Always try to use the language so as to make quite clear what you mean and make sure your sentence couldn’t mean anything else.

Short words are best and the old words when short are best of all.

I’m just preparing my impromptu remarks.

We never fully grasp the import of any true statement until we have a clear notion of what the opposite untrue statement would be.

Everything is clearer when you’re in love.

Good writing is like a windowpane.

Take advantage of every opportunity to practice your communication skills so that when important occasions arise, you will have the gift, the style, the sharpness, the clarity, and the emotions to affect other people.

When things haven’t gone well for you, call in a secretary or a staff man and chew him out. You will sleep better and they will appreciate the attention.

In the television age, the key distinction is between the candidate who can speak poetry and the one who can only speak prose.

On the whole, we think of our consumers – other judges, lawyers, the public. The law that the Supreme Court establishes is the law that they must live by, so all things considered, it’s better to have it clearer than confusing.

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

In one case out of a hundred a point is excessively discussed because it is obscure; in the ninety-nine remaining it is obscure because it is excessively discussed.

You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you.

People generally quarrel because they cannot argue.

When you meet with someone and you try to assess whether they’re telling you the truth or not, there’s several things you can do. You judge demeanor and credibility. You look at corroboration.

How can a president not be an actor?

The wine of youth does not always clear with advancing years; sometimes it grows turbid.

Reacting in anger or annoyance will not advance one’s ability to persuade.

Talk low, talk slow and don’t say too much.

One of the key qualities a leader must possess is the ability to detach from the chaos, mayhem, and emotions in a situation and make good, clear decisions based on what is actually happening.

I don’t do meetings.

Educators take something simple and make it complicated. Communicators take something complicated and make it simple.

A master performer like Bill Clinton never lost sight of the fact that as president he had to project confidence and power, but if he was speaking to a group of autoworkers he would adjust his accent and his words to fit the audience, and do the same for a group of executives.