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

One has to secrete a jelly in which to slip quotations down people’s throats – and one always secretes too much jelly.

Happy is the hearing man; unhappy the speaking man.

The capacity of human beings to bore one another seems to be vastly greater than that of any other animal.

Talking isn’t doing. It is a kind of good deed to say well; and yet words are not deeds.

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 think we’re still in a muddle with our language, because once you get words and a spoken language it gets harder to communicate.

Before I look stupid and not know what a word means or how to pronounce it, I’ll stop the whole production: ‚Hey, real quick, guys. Define this word for me. Somebody.‘

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.

One might say that our words are a movie screen that reveals what we have been thinking and the attitudes we have.

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.

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.

If I’ve got a problem with one of my clients that needs to get solved, guess what I’m going to do? I’m going to call them up, and I’m going to say, ‚Hey, here’s what’s going on. This is the situation. This thing went sideways. I didn’t expect it. Now it’s going to take me some more time to get you what you need.‘ But I’m going to do that upfront.

As soon as I arrived in the Indies, in the first island which I found, I took some of the natives by force, in order that they might learn and might give me information of whatever there is in these parts. And so it was that they soon understood us, and we them, either by speech or by signs, and they have been very serviceable.

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

I would impress upon your minds the fact that if you want to do a man justice, you should believe what a man says himself rather than what people say he says.

People are very reluctant to talk about their private lives but then you go to the internet and they’re much more open.

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

Language is one component of the human cognitive capacity which happens to be fairly amenable to enquiry. So we know a good deal about that.

The language of friendship is not words but meanings.

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

I used to be a great fan of doing crosswords. When you’re fiddling around with anagrams, you get wonderful jumbles of syllables that become interesting.

To be social is to be forgiving.

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

Words are also actions, and actions are a kind of words.

You aren’t learning anything when you’re talking.

In constructing the plot and working it out with the proper diction, the poet should place the scene, as far as possible, before his eyes. In this way, seeing everything with the utmost vividness, as if he were a spectator of the action, he will discover what is in keeping with it, and be most unlikely to overlook inconsistencies.

Music fills in for words a lot of the time when people don’t know what to say, and I think music can be more eloquent than words.

Character may almost be called the most effective means of persuasion.

I am a good listener. I think that came from my schooling.

People respond in accordance to how you relate to them. If you approach them on the basis of violence, that’s how they’ll react. But if you say, ‚We want peace, we want stability,‘ we can then do a lot of things that will contribute towards the progress of our society.

Girls talk to each other like men talk to each other. But girls have an eye for detail.

A quarrel is quickly settled when deserted by one party; there is no battle unless there be two.

There are many times when a woman will ask another girl friend how she likes her new hat. She will reply, ‚Fine,‘ but slap her hand to her forehead the minute the girl leaves to yipe, ‚What a horror!‘

A state of society where men may not speak their minds cannot long endure.

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

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

The true genius shudders at incompleteness – and usually prefers silence to saying something which is not everything it should be.

Language is the dress of thought.

If you’re nice to me I’ll never write anything bad about you.

I resolved to stop accumulating and begin the infinitely more serious and difficult task of wise distribution.

Use what language you will, you can never say anything but what you are.

The more you explain it, the more I don’t understand it.

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

If a word in the dictionary were misspelled, how would we know?

Simplicity is a key to avoiding complication. Part of the definition of simplicity is ‚not complex or complicated; sincere.‘

What makes us human, I think, is an ability to ask questions, a consequence of our sophisticated spoken language.

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

When I was a college student and I got interested in linguistics the concern among students was, this is a lot of fun, but after we have done a structural analysis of every language in the world what’s left? It was assumed there were basically no puzzles.

I loved writing for kids, I loved talking to children about what I’d written, I don’t want to leave that behind.

I am a simple Buddhist monk – no more, no less.

Diplomacy is the art of saying ‚Nice doggie‘ until you can find a rock.

SPAM is taking e-mail, which is a wonderful tool, and exploiting the idea that it’s very inexpensive to send mail.

You are not only responsible for what you say, but also for what you do not say.

There is nothing so strong or safe in an emergency of life as the simple truth.

When written in Chinese, the word ‚crisis‘ is composed of two characters. One represents danger and the other represents opportunity.

One great use of words is to hide our thoughts.

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

People may hear your words, but they feel your attitude.

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

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.