When we launched a new company, I reviewed the ads and marketing materials and asked those presenting the campaign to read everything aloud to test the phrasing and concept. If I could grasp it quickly, then it passed with muster. We would get our message across only if it was understandable at first glance.

If you must speak ill of another, do not speak it, write it in the sand near the water’s edge.

I used to stutter really badly. Everybody thinks it’s funny. And it’s not funny. It’s not.

I don’t like talking to celebrities.

Never ask anyone over 70 how they feel. They’ll tell you.

People use irony as a defense mechanism.

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.

All men hate the nagging.

There is but one way for a president to deal with Congress, and that is continuously, incessantly, and without interruption. If it is really going to work, the relationship has got to be almost incestuous.

It’s pretty hard to be efficient without being obnoxious.

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.

He that would live in peace and at ease must not speak all he knows or all he sees.

Let us make a special effort to stop communicating with each other, so we can have some conversation.

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

If you do not wish a man to do a thing, you had better get him to talk about it; for the more men talk, the more likely they are to do nothing else.

I just want you to know that, when we talk about war, we’re really talking about peace.

But let there be spaces in your togetherness and let the winds of the heavens dance between you. Love one another but make not a bond of love: let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.

Ever since Newton, we’ve done science by taking things apart to see how they work. What the computer enables us to do is to put things together to see how they work: we’re now synthesized rather than analysed. I find one of the most enthralling aspects of computers is limitless communication.

Talk that does not end in any kind of action is better suppressed altogether.

Sometimes I’ve been to a party where no one spoke to me for a whole evening. The men, frightened by their wives or sweeties, would give me a wide berth. And the ladies would gang up in a corner to discuss my dangerous character.

Whenever you’re in conflict with someone, there is one factor that can make the difference between damaging your relationship and deepening it. That factor is attitude.

If you want peace, you don’t talk to your friends. You talk to your enemies.

You have to be careful about how much you reveal to people that look up to you so much.

The difficulty with this conversation is that it’s very different from most of the ones I’ve had of late. Which, as I explained, have mostly been with trees.

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.

I don’t say very much I don’t really think through. I know that sounds inconsistent with Joe Biden.

Words are loaded pistols.

The language of friendship is not words but meanings.

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.

We have two ears and one tongue so that we would listen more and talk less.

Words are but the signs of ideas.

There is a huge need and a huge opportunity to get everyone in the world connected, to give everyone a voice and to help transform society for the future. The scale of the technology and infrastructure that must be built is unprecedented, and we believe this is the most important problem we can focus on.

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

I have to be in tune. All the time. I have to be in tune with my husband, where he is, how he’s feeling. I have to be in tune with where my family is.

A letter does not blush.

If Jesus were here today, he wouldn’t be riding around on a donkey. He’d be taking a plane, he’d be using the media.

Sometimes one creates a dynamic impression by saying something, and sometimes one creates as significant an impression by remaining silent.

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

Writing, to me, is simply thinking through my fingers.

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

The right word may be effective, but no word was ever as effective as a rightly timed pause.

Proselytism is solemn nonsense; it makes no sense. We need to get to know each other, listen to each other and improve our knowledge of the world around us.

I suppose leadership at one time meant muscles; but today it means getting along with people.

I’ve been lucky – all the ads I’ve got, I’ve got to be myself. I haven’t had to act too much or tried too hard to be someone I’m not. I think that’s why people sort of like them. Even the Fastrack ads I did with Genelia.

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.

Never speak to an invalid from behind, nor from the door, nor from any distance from him, nor when he is doing anything. The official politeness of servants in these things is so grateful to invalids, that many prefer, without knowing why, having none but servants about them.

If I have the chance to say something, I will say it – but that doesn’t obligate me to always say something, or to shed light on every problem, as if I were a lawmaker.

If advertisers spent the same amount of money on improving their products as they do on advertising then they wouldn’t have to advertise them.

Change happens by listening and then starting a dialogue with the people who are doing something you don’t believe is right.

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

Every spoken word arouses our self-will.

Kids who have an understanding of how and why their feelings are what they are are much more likely to talk to us about what’s happening, and they have better skills to work it out.

Frank and explicit – that is the right line to take when you wish to conceal your own mind and confuse the minds of others.

I sent one e-mail in my life. I sent it to Jeff Raikes at Microsoft, and it ended up in court in Minneapolis, so I am one for one.

There is no waste of time in life like that of making explanations.

You can’t talk your way out of problems you behave yourself into.

Most negotiators are trying to get their way.

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 don’t like typing messages on my phone. Some people get used to it.

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

I maintain that, if everyone knew what others said about him, there would not be four friends in the world.