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

Prayer is simply a two-way conversation between you and God.

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

The second time around, I’ll understand that, as a husband, my wife doesn’t care about my opinions. I just need to tell her the things that will continue to help me stack the brownie points.

I very much believe the Internet is indeed all it is cracked up to be.

Marriage is a series of desperate arguments people feel passionately about.

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

Swearing is industry language. For as long as we’re alive it’s not going to change. You’ve got to be boisterous to get results.

Of course you can’t ‚trust‘ what people tell you on the web anymore than you can ‚trust‘ what people tell you on megaphones, postcards or in restaurants. Working out the social politics of who you can trust and why is, quite literally, what a very large part of our brain has evolved to do.

Fear not those who argue but those who dodge.

If you want what you’re saying heard, then take your time and say it so that the listener will actually hear it. You might save somebody’s life. Your own, first.

The royal road to a man’s heart is to talk to him about the things he treasures most.

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.‘

The wit knows that his place is at the tail of a procession.

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

The Internet has compromised the quality of debate.

Woman begins by resisting a man’s advances and ends by blocking his retreat.

The people to fear are not those who disagree with you, but those who disagree with you and are too cowardly to let you know.

After one has been in prison, it is the small things that one appreciates: being able to take a walk whenever one wants, going into a shop and buying a newspaper, speaking or choosing to remain silent. The simple act of being able to control one’s person.

I don’t have any oratory skills. But I would not use them if I had.

I don’t do Shakespeare. I don’t talk in that kind of broken English.

Counsel with your parents is a privilege at any age.

I’m not a natural joiner.

The true triumph of reason is that it enables us to get along with those who do not possess it.

We’ve fallen into a trap of ever-widening orbits of contact, and there is a total disregard for the present moment.

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.

If you want to get each individual’s honest opinion, you don’t want that opinion to be influenced by others who are present, much less allow a group to coordinate what they are going to say.

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

I’m blessed to have such a tight-knit family that we can talk about anything. Whether we talk frequently or not, since we’re on separate ends of the country, there are a lot of moving parts, and we always stay tight and find that center ground that keeps us together.

I meet people overseas that know five languages – that the only language I’m comfortable in is English.

Prayer is such a basic foundation of a Christian’s relationship with God. It’s how we communicate and fellowship with Him. But a surprising number of people, young and old, new and even long-time Christians, say they’re not satisfied with their prayer life.

I try to speak in everyday language. I feel like God has gifted me to take Bible principles and make them practical.

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.

If I’m in a political argument, I think I can, with reasonable accuracy and without boasting, put the other person’s side of the case at least as well as they could. One has to be able to say that in any well-conducted argument.

Writing and cookery are just two different means of communication.

I vividly remember a conversation I had many years ago in 1974, which marked a turning point in my leadership journey. I was sitting at a Holiday Inn with my friend, Kurt Campmeyer, when he asked me if I had a personal growth plan. I didn’t. In fact, I didn’t even know you were supposed to have one.

In my neighborhood, when you’ve got something to say to a guy, you look him in the eye and you say it to him.

All knowledge which ends in words will die as quickly as it came to life, with the exception of the written word: which is its mechanical part.

When I am getting ready to reason with a man, I spend one-third of my time thinking about myself and what I am going to say and two-thirds about him and what he is going to say.

Most negotiators are trying to get their way.

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

If I could explain it to the average person, it wouldn’t have been worth the Nobel Prize.

The chief virtue that language can have is clearness, and nothing detracts from it so much as the use of unfamiliar words.

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.

I am not going to be a mouthpiece for language that I detest.

I like learning more about people; I like to talk to people.

I have made the mistaken assumption – and I will attempt to be better at this – of thinking that because somebody is on Twitter and is attacking me that it is open season. And that is my mistake.

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

Our diplomacy and development budget is not just about reducing spending and finding efficiencies. We need a frank conversation about what we stand for as that ‚shining city on a hill.‘ And that conversation begins by acknowledging that we can’t do it on the cheap.

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

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

When a man says he had pleasure with a woman he does not mean conversation.

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.

I don’t mind how much my Ministers talk, so long as they do what I say.

It’s not a slam at you when people are rude, it’s a slam at the people they’ve met before.

If you’re yelling you’re the one who’s lost control of the conversation.

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.

I’m not always going to say things the perfect way, the right way. But I’m going to say how I feel.

I miss people. I miss going anywhere and meeting a random person and saying ‚Hi‘ and having a conversation about life. I love people.

People are generally amazed that I would take an interest in any forum that would require me to stop talking for three hours.

I promised myself that I would write as well as I can, tell the truth, not to tell everything I know, but to make sure that everything I tell is true, as I understand it. And to use the eloquence which my language affords me.