Quotes about talking
319 quotes from 193 people
It takes two to speak the truth, — one to speak, and another to hear.
Henry David Thoreau1817–1862A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers (1849), WednesdayClassical quotation is the parole of literary men all over the world.
Samuel Johnson1709–1784Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), Vol IV (8 May 1781)Anyone can tell the truth, but only very few of us can make epigrams.
W. Somerset Maugham1874–1965“1896”, p. 17Like your body your mind also gets tired so refresh it by wise sayings.
AAli599–661Nahj al-BalaghaA very great part of the mischiefs that vex the world arises from words.
Edmund Burke1729–1797Letter to Richard Burke post 19 February 1792 (1792), in R. B. McDowell and William B. Todd (eds), The Writings and Speeches of Edmund Burke, Vol. 9: I: The Revolutionary War, 1794-1797Attack is the reaction; I never think I have hit hard unless it rebounds.
Samuel Johnson1709–1784Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), Vol II (2 April 1775)She had a pretty gift for quotation, which is a serviceable substitute for wit…
W. Somerset Maugham1874–1965“The Creative Impulse”, in Six Stories Written in the First Person Singular (1931)Beware of thinkers whose minds function only when they are fueled by a quotation.
ECEmil Cioran1911–1995Anathemas and Admirations (1987)A speech comes alive only if it rises from the heart, not if it floats on the lips.
Erasmus1466–1536in The Erasmus Reader (1990), p. 130.Sir, I have found you an argument; but I am not obliged to find you an understanding.
Samuel Johnson1709–1784Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), Vol IV (June 1784) p. 545Every quotation contributes something to the stability or enlargement of the language.
Samuel Johnson1709–1784A Dictionary of the English Language (1755), PrefaceHis conversation does not show the minute-hand, but he strikes the hour very correctly.
Samuel Johnson1709–1784Kearsley, 604Confidant, Confidante, n. One entrusted by A with the secrets of B, confided by him to C.
Ambrose Bierce1842–1914The Devil’s Dictionary (1911)To acquire immunity to eloquence is of the utmost importance to the citizens of a democracy.
Bertrand Russell1872–1970Power: A New Social Analysis (1938), Ch. 18: The Taming of PowerThe purpose of aphorisms is to keep fools who have memorised them from having nothing to say.
Isaac Asimov1920–1992In Memory Yet Green (1979), p. 188