The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.

Any fact that needs to be disclosed should be put out now or as quickly as possible, because otherwise the bleeding will not end.

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

I actually started off majoring in computer science, but I knew right away I wasn’t going to stay with it. It was because I had this one professor who was the loneliest, saddest man I’ve ever known. He was a programmer, and I knew that I didn’t want to do whatever he did. So after that, I switched to Communications.

Remind yourself that winning an argument or proving your point really gets you nowhere in the long run. Win through your actions, not your words.

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

I did my utmost to ensure that everyone below me in the chain of command felt comfortable approaching me with concerns, ideas, thoughts, and even disagreements.

We live in an image society. Speeches are not what anybody cares about; what they care about is the picture.

Debates, I hate.

Diplomacy is listening to what the other guy needs. Preserving your own position, but listening to the other guy. You have to develop relationships with other people so when the tough times come, you can work together.

No one lies so boldly as the man who is indignant.

The common thread for everything I do is this idea of a Web-services architecture. What does that mean? It means taking components of software and systems and having them be self-describing, so that you can aim them, ask them what their capabilities are, and communicate with them using a standard protocol.

I had a great time being a salesman because of the pitches that I gave when I was selling shoes. However, I don’t think I’m as well versed in shoes as I am in comedy. Being a salesman was all about being a people person, and I enjoy being around people. I also love talking to people – which is why I think I did so well.

I’ve had a perfectly wonderful evening. But this wasn’t it.

My books are like water; those of the great geniuses are wine. (Fortunately) everybody drinks water.

A fundamentalist can’t bring himself or herself to negotiate with people who disagree with them because the negotiating process itself is an indication of implied equality.

If it’s a penny for your thoughts and you put in your two cents worth, then someone, somewhere is making a penny.

Language is an intrinsic part of who we are and what has, for good or evil, happened to us.

If time be of all things the most precious, wasting time must be the greatest prodigality.

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.

It’s never happened in history that every region in the world could affect every other region simultaneously. The Roman empire and the Chinese empire didn’t know much about each other and had no means of interacting. Now we have every continent able to reach every other.

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

When we turn to one another for counsel we reduce the number of our enemies.

A good leader can engage in a debate frankly and thoroughly, knowing that at the end he and the other side must be closer, and thus emerge stronger. You don’t have that idea when you are arrogant, superficial, and uninformed.

We don’t get to know people when they come to us; we must go to them to find out what they are like.

If you can’t convince them, confuse them.

A letter does not blush.

I very rarely think in words at all. A thought comes, and I may try to express it in words afterwards.

I have already demonstrated, by crucial tests, the practicability of signaling by my system from one to any other point of the globe, no matter how remote, and I shall soon convert the disbelievers.

We awaken in others the same attitude of mind we hold toward them.

The best way to resolve any problem in the human world is for all sides to sit down and talk.

Writing and cookery are just two different means of communication.

Counsel with your parents is a privilege at any age.

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

Information is the oxygen of the modern age. It seeps through the walls topped by barbed wire, it wafts across the electrified borders.

Fear not those who argue but those who dodge.

Admiration is the daughter of ignorance.

Seek first to understand, then to be understood.

Why a four-year-old child could understand this report. Run out and find me a four-year-old child. I can’t make head nor tail out of it.

Silence speaks so much louder than screaming tantrums. Never give anyone an excuse to say that you’re crazy.

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

Persuasion is clearly a sort of demonstration, since we are most fully persuaded when we consider a thing to have been demonstrated.

Only the wisest and stupidest of men never change.

I don’t hate women – they just sometimes make me mad.

I can resist everything except temptation.

If a man writes a book, let him set down only what he knows. I have guesses enough of my own.

Eating words has never given me indigestion.

The environment that we call society is created by past generations; we accept it, as it helps us to maintain our greed, possessiveness, illusion.

When we are born we cry that we are come to this great stage of fools.

Three o’clock is always too late or too early for anything you want to do.

A bone to the dog is not charity. Charity is the bone shared with the dog, when you are just as hungry as the dog.

Illusion is the first of all pleasures.

There are a lot of self-imposed restrictions by people who somehow believe they have to fall in with a certain military cant. There was always a sense that we had to put things into words that would touch our troops‘ hearts, not just their heads.

One of my direct subordinates, one of my guys that worked for me, he would call me up or pull me aside with some major problem, some issue that was going on. And he’d say, ‚Boss, we’ve got this, and that, and the other thing.‘ And I’d look at him and I’d say, ‚Good.‘

‚No comment‘ is a splendid expression. I am using it again and again.

What women need to understand is that men don’t communicate. It’s not intentional or on purpose. We’re just not as emotional. You ladies feel like you have to express yourselves.

I’ve always wanted male friends that I could be real intimate with and talk about important things with and be as affectionate with that person as I would be with a girl.

Whenever the speech is corrupted so is the mind.

I’m trying to make God more relevant in our society. And I think talking in everyday terms and making sure people can understand it – I think that’s important.

I never did give anybody hell. I just told the truth and they thought it was hell.

All that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream.