Talkers are usually more articulate than doers, since talk is their specialty.

I’ve been known to preach.

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.

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

People generally quarrel because they cannot argue.

I’m not a person that socializes very well.

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

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.

Respond intelligently even to unintelligent treatment.

When Caroline Kennedy managed to say ‚you know‘ more than 200 times in an interview with the New York ‚Daily News,‘ and on 130 occasions while talking to ‚The New York Times‘ during her uninspired attempt to become a hereditary senator, she proved, among other things, that she was (a) middle-aged and (b) middle class.

Conflict cannot survive without your participation.

There are some who speak well and write badly. For the place and the audience warm them, and draw from their minds more than they think of without that warmth.

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

If one could only teach the English how to talk, and the Irish how to listen, society here would be quite civilized.

Only the prepared speaker deserves to be confident.

A man may speak very well in the House of Commons, and fail very completely in the House of Lords. There are two distinct styles requisite: I intend, in the course of my career, if I have time, to give a specimen of both.

Communication is a skill that you can learn. It’s like riding a bicycle or typing. If you’re willing to work at it, you can rapidly improve the quality of evry part of your life.

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.

So when I speak in front of thousands, tens of thousands of people, I don’t really get nervous because I know what I want to say and I know what message I want to give.

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.

I’m not very articulate.

Extemporaneous speaking should be practiced and cultivated. It is the lawyer’s avenue to the public. However able and faithful he may be in other respects, people are slow to bring him business if he cannot make a speech.

Be as polite to the custodian as you are to the chairman of the board.

In ideal form of social control is an atomised collection of individuals focused on their own narrow concern, lacking the kinds of organisations in which they can gain information, develop and articulate their thoughts, and act constructively to achieve common ends.

In making a speech one must study three points: first, the means of producing persuasion; second, the language; third the proper arrangement of the various parts of the speech.

Listen with the intent to understand, not the intent to reply.

How can a president not be an actor?

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

A person standing in front of an audience without enthusiasm for his subject and his actions is disconnected from his spirit.

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

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

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.

That’s another hallmark of truth, is that it snaps things together. People write to me all the time and say it’s as if things were coming together in my mind. It’s like the Platonic idea that all learning was remembering. You have a nature, and when you feel that nature articulated, it’s it’s like the act of snapping the puzzle pieces together.

I have been – I have spoken in Bir Zeit a number of times.

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.

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

It usually takes me more than three weeks to prepare a good impromptu speech.

I really think that there was a great advantage in many ways to being a woman. I think we are a lot better at personal relationships, and then have the capability obviously of telling it like it is when it’s necessary.

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.

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

The most important things are the hardest things to say. They are the things you get ashamed of because words diminish your feelings – words shrink things that seem timeless when they are in your head to no more than living size when they are brought out.

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

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.

I don’t even know how to speak up for myself, because I don’t really have a father who would give me the confidence or advice.

The big divide in this country is not between Democrats and Republicans, or women and men, but between talkers and doers.

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.

I thought my life was mapped out. Research, living in the forest, teaching and writing. But in ’86 I went to a conference and realised the chimpanzees were disappearing. I had worldwide recognition and a gift of communication. I had to use them.

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.

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

Example is leadership.

I don’t do meetings.

Remember not only to say the right thing in the right place, but far more difficult still, to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment.

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

Until the men of action clear out the talkers we who have social consciences are at the mercy of those who have none.

If the tongue had not been framed for articulation, man would still be a beast in the forest.

Transforming yourself into a deep listener will not only prove more amusing as you open your mind to their mind, but you will gain the most invaluable lessons about human psychology.

The only way to get the best of an argument is to avoid it.

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

I was always taught not to answer no questions. I’m not really good at answering them because I get agitated so fast.

It’s funny because I’ve made a living off of words, but words get in the way of what you really want to say.

You can disagree without being disagreeable.