The difference between a stranger sending you a message that you might be interested in at a very low volume level, no repetition, just sending it to very few people, and that being done as spam – those things get close enough that you want to be careful never to filter out something that’s legitimate.

When our governments want to sell us a course of action, they do it by making sure it’s the only thing on the agenda, the only thing everyone’s talking about. And they pre-load the ensuing discussion with highly selected images, devious and prejudicial language, dubious linkages, weak or false ‚intelligence‘ and selected ‚leaks.‘

At best, the renewal of broken relations is a nervous matter.

Of all forms of caution, caution in love is perhaps the most fatal to true happiness.

I think one of the basic reasons men make good friends is that they can make up their minds quickly.

What you guys want, I’m for.

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

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

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.

What makes you a SEAL, what makes you a SEAL is being a good tactician on the battle field, understanding how to shoot, move, and communicate, knowing small unit maneuver warfare. That’s what makes a good SEAL, and so that is the course of instruction that I taught, was getting SEAL platoons ready for deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan.

We must distinguish between speaking to deceive and being silent to be reserved.

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

Words are more powerful than some noises. Noises won’t last long. Lyrics are so important, and people don’t realise that.

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

What can I say? I’m a talker.

My life is my message.

My mother always taught us that if people don’t agree with you, the important thing is to listen to them. But if you’ve listened to them carefully and you still think that you’re right, then you must have the courage of your convictions.

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.

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

Write in such a way as that you can be readily understood by both the young and the old, by men as well as women, even by children.

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.

In order to have friends, you must first be one.

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

Whenever the speech is corrupted so is the mind.

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.

We cannot learn from one another until we stop shouting at one another – until we speak quietly enough so that our words can be heard as well as our voices.

Do not bite at the bait of pleasure, till you know there is no hook beneath it.

I talk to myself all the time. Just make sure you answer.

I hold a lot of things in. I’m always making sure everybody is okay. I usually don’t rage; I usually don’t curse. So for me, it’s a great thing to be able to scream and say whatever I want.

A speech idiosyncrasy, in the same way as an air quote, is really justifiable only if it’s employed very sparingly and if the user consciously intends to be using it.

A wet spot on the floor kind of put a scare in myself, so you never know inside those lines what might happen.

To a guy like me, a laugh is full of information.

People often think I’m a faker, but I’m usually honest, in a certain way – in such a way that often nobody believes me!

He that speaks much, is much mistaken.

Many people listen to what I have to say and I appear a lot in media, so therefore I influence a lot of people and therefore I have a bigger responsibility because I have a bigger platform.

We shall never be able to remove suspicion and fear as potential causes of war until communication is permitted to flow, free and open, across international boundaries.

I have an urge to communicate. I think I’m a change from what it would be like dating a normal guy who doesn’t talk too much.

Do not meddle in the affairs of Wizards, for they are subtle and quick to anger.

For an author to write as he speaks is just as reprehensible as the opposite fault, to speak as he writes; for this gives a pedantic effect to what he says, and at the same time makes him hardly intelligible.

Be generous with kindly words, especially about those who are absent.

Before I lost my voice, it was slurred, so only those close to me could understand, but with the computer voice, I found I could give popular lectures. I enjoy communicating science. It is important that the public understands basic science, if they are not to leave vital decisions to others.

My readers – and I get 400 emails for a day, my readers normally they say, well, you understand me, and I answer, you do understand me also. We are in the same level.

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

Who you are speaks so loudly I can’t hear what you’re saying.

He who does not understand your silence will probably not understand your words.

I would rather try to persuade a man to go along, because once I have persuaded him, he will stick. If I scare him, he will stay just as long as he is scared, and then he is gone.

I have my own vocabulary. I love linguistics. That surprises people.

You learn a lot about someone when you share a meal together.

I wanted to be a doctor that I might be able to work without having to talk because for years I had been giving myself out in words.

The only time people dislike gossip is when you gossip about them.

Coffee is a language in itself.

The PC has improved the world in just about every area you can think of. Amazing developments in communications, collaboration and efficiencies. New kinds of entertainment and social media. Access to information and the ability to give a voice people who would never have been heard.

I think it’s fair to say that personal computers have become the most empowering tool we’ve ever created. They’re tools of communication, they’re tools of creativity, and they can be shaped by their user.

My message to the Americans is the same as to everyone – that is to unite behind the science and to act on the science.

Basically what I’m trying to tell you is that it’s almost impossible to drive a jet ski at night time unless you’re in a city with lights lit up so you can navigate. Besides being pitch black, that water turn black at night. Listen, I don’t recommend it.

You can only have one aim per debate.

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.

Words, words, words! They shut one off from the universe. Three quarters of the time one’s never in contact with things, only with the beastly words that stand for them.

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

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.

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