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

Think twice before you speak, because your words and influence will plant the seed of either success or failure in the mind of another.

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

Action speaks louder than words but not nearly as often.

Sincere words are not fine; fine words are not sincere.

Writing and cookery are just two different means of communication.

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

The Internet is becoming the town square for the global village of tomorrow.

The greatest thing in family life is to take a hint when a hint is intended-and not to take a hint when a hint isn’t intended.

Frank and explicit – that is the right line to take when you wish to conceal your own mind and confuse the minds of others.

The wise ones fashioned speech with their thought, sifting it as grain is sifted through a sieve.

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.

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

There is one way to have a short but exciting conversation with me, and that is to move too slow.

I don’t think it’s possible to have a sense of tragedy without having a sense of humor.

As we must account for every idle word, so must we account for every idle silence.

People who know little are usually great talkers, while men who know much say little.

The Vietnam War was a great tragedy for our country. And it is now far enough away so that one can study without using the slogans to see what’s really happened.

Be not a slave of words.

If you deny people their own voice, you’ll have no idea of who they were.

FaceTime helps me a lot. I feel like I’m at home even though I’m not.

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

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.

It is hardly an exaggeration to say that oral teachers and sign teachers found it difficult to sit down in the same room without quarreling, and there was intolerance upon both sides. To say ‚oral method‘ to a sign teacher was like waving a red flag in the face of a bull, and to say ‚sign language‘ to an oralist aroused the deepest resentment.

Talk that does not end in any kind of action is better suppressed altogether.

Not to expose your true feelings to an adult seems to be instinctive from the age of seven or eight onwards.

When you really listen to another person from their point of view, and reflect back to them that understanding, it’s like giving them emotional oxygen.

I don’t want to tell President Obama how to make a speech. He’s a much better speech maker than I am. But I think always to tell the truth in a sometimes blatant way, even though it might be temporarily unpopular, is the best approach.

Peace comes when you talk to the guy you most hate. And that’s where the courage of a leader comes, because when you sit down with your enemy, you as a leader must already have very considerable confidence from your own constituency.

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

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

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

The deliberate and deadly attacks which were carried out yesterday against our country were more than acts of terror. They were acts of war.

Everything becomes a little different as soon as it is spoken out loud.

I think a lot of people, including me, clammed up when a civilian asked about battle, about war. It was fashionable. One of the most impressive ways to tell your war story is to refuse to tell it, you know. Civilians would then have to imagine all kinds of deeds of derring-do.

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.

Animation can explain whatever the mind of man can conceive. This facility makes it the most versatile and explicit means of communication yet devised for quick mass appreciation.

A woman will doubt everything you say except it be compliments to herself.

It is not only the living who are killed in war.

Without tact you can learn nothing.

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.

It is understanding that gives us an ability to have peace. When we understand the other fellow’s viewpoint, and he understands ours, then we can sit down and work out our differences.

I learned from my dog long before I went to Gombe that we weren’t the only beings with personalities. What the chimps did was help me to persuade others.

As he was valiant, I honour him. But as he was ambitious, I slew him.

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.

I have an answering machine in my car. It says, I’m home now. But leave a message and I’ll call when I’m out.

He must be very ignorant for he answers every question he is asked.

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.

Auschwitz stands as a tragic reminder of the terrible potential man has for violence and inhumanity.

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

It’s a very good question, very direct, and I’m not going to answer it.

I guess every single word I’ve ever said is going to be dissected now.

Blessed is the man, who having nothing to say, abstains from giving wordy evidence of the fact.

At one time in my life, from the time I was seven until I was about 13, I didn’t speak. I only spoke to my brother. The reason I didn’t speak: I had been molested, and I told the name of the molester to my brother who told it to the family.

Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will.

One often contradicts an opinion when what is uncongenial is really the tone in which it was conveyed.

I’m really bad with answering questions. Usually, I don’t even answer them. I try to find inspiration inside of the question. I think, and I jump from one beam of inspiration or energy to the next, as opposed to explaining the energy.

There is always another way to say the same thing that doesn’t look at all like the way you said it before. I don’t know what the reason for this is. I think it is somehow a representation of the simplicity of nature.

We don’t need to share the same opinions as others, but we need to be respectful.

Tell them to send everything that can fly.

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.