I’m guarded; I don’t talk much.

Broadly speaking, the short words are the best, and the old words best of all.

When he speaks to you he speaks with an earnest vibe and an earnest energy.

Often, I can scarcely hear any one speaking to me; the tones yes, but not the actual words; yet as soon as any one shouts, it is unbearable. What will come of all this, heaven only knows!

All of the books in the world contain no more information than is broadcast as video in a single large American city in a single year. Not all bits have equal value.

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

Before a man speaks it is always safe to assume that he is a fool. After he speaks, it is seldom necessary to assume it.

We write for the same reason that we walk, talk, climb mountains or swim the oceans – because we can. We have some impulse within us that makes us want to explain ourselves to other human beings. That’s why we paint, that’s why we dare to love someone – because we have the impulse to explain who we are.

The most dangerous word in any human tongue is the word for brother. It’s inflammatory.

I like to listen. I have learned a great deal from listening carefully. Most people never listen.

If you’re a politician, you might want to learn the Buddhist way of negotiation. Restoring communication and bringing back reconciliation is clear and concrete in Buddhism.

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

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

Stage actors are usually much more conscious of speaking up and making sure that everyone can hear in the back of the theatre; a film actor probably thinks of that a little less.

There is nothing in which people more betray their character than in what they laugh at.

We want everybody to act like adults, quit playing games, realize that it’s not just my way or the highway.

The secret to the movie business, or any business, is to get a good education in a subject besides film – whether it’s history, psychology, economics, or architecture – so you have something to make a movie about. All the skill in the world isn’t going to help you unless you have something to say.

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.

The way I talk is bizarre.

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.

When a thoughtless or unkind word is spoken, best tune out.

You could imagine a language exactly like English except it doesn’t have connectives like ‚and‘ that allow you to make longer expressions. An infant learning truncated English would have no idea about this: They would just pick it up as they would standard English.

The superior man acts before he speaks, and afterwards speaks according to his action.

Taste is the only morality. Tell me what you like and I’ll tell you what you are.

I meant what I said and I said what I meant.

Words do not express thoughts very well. They always become a little different immediately after they are expressed, a little distorted, a little foolish.

I just think you ought to talk straight with your people.

I’m not the most patient of people.

There, in the chords and melodies, is everything I want to say. The words just jolly it along. It’s always been my way of expressing what, for me, is inexpressible by any other means.

Woe to the makers of literal translations, who by rendering every word weaken the meaning! It is indeed by so doing that we can say the letter kills and the spirit gives life.

But I’ll tell you what hermits realize. If you go off into a far, far forest and get very quiet, you’ll come to understand that you’re connected with everything.

Never give an order that can’t be obeyed.

Every spoken word arouses our self-will.

There is a huge need and a huge opportunity to get everyone in the world connected, to give everyone a voice and to help transform society for the future. The scale of the technology and infrastructure that must be built is unprecedented, and we believe this is the most important problem we can focus on.

Silence is safer than speech.

We cannot always oblige; but we can always speak obligingly.

The best way to give advice to your children is to find out what they want and then advise them to do it.

An idea, like a ghost, must be spoken to a little before it will explain itself.

I speak a number of languages, but none are more beautiful to me than English.

Without tact you can learn nothing.

Occasionally I’ve seen children become heavy-handed and insensitive when dealing with their aging parents, and it only caused resentment and hard feelings.

The idea of personal salvation is intensely repugnant to me when it is not absurd. Imagine Roosevelt, the big brute, preserving his personality in a future state and swaggering about as a celestial Rough Rider!

A yawn is a silent shout.

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

My dad was very intelligent, had a very strong personality. I was amazed with my father.

Sometimes cameras and television are good to people and sometimes they aren’t. I don’t know if its the way you say it, or how you look.

You don’t lead by hitting people over the head – that’s assault, not leadership.

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

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.

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

And all who told it added something new, and all who heard it, made enlargements too.

If you’re talking to a man who wouldn’t fight with you under any circumstances whatsoever, then you’re talking to someone for whom you have absolutely no respect.

Listening has importance only when one is not projecting one’s own desires through which one listens.

The strong man is the one who is able to intercept at will the communication between the senses and the mind.

In the end, people are persuaded not by what we say, but by what they understand.

Silence is the most perfect expression of scorn.

Tell the audience what you’re going to say, say it; then tell them what you’ve said.

When a politician uses the word ‚folks,‘ we should brace ourselves for the deceit, or worse, that is coming.

In a certain way, it’s the sound of the words, the inflection and the way the song is sung and the way it fits the melody and the way the syllables are on the tongue that has as much of the meaning as the actual, literal words.

If you want to talk about something new, you have to make up a new kind of language.

A man’s manners are a mirror in which he shows his portrait.