Quotes about talking
319 quotes from 193 people
Sydney Smith1771–1845Lady Holland’s Memoir (1855), Vol. I, ch. 11, p. 415There is no greater evil one can suffer than to hate reasonable discourse.
Socrates470–399 BCPhaedoThose who are preoccupied with ‘making a statement’ usually don’t have any statements worth making.
Gertrude Stein1874–1946“Form and Intelligibility,” from The Radcliffe Manuscripts (1949); written in 1895 as an undergraduate at Radcliffe College
Adlai Stevenson II1900–1965Introducing John F. Kennedy in 1960, as quoted in Adlai Stevenson and The World: The Life of Adlai E. Stevenson (1977) by John Bartlow Martin, p. 549- Adlai Stevenson II1900–1965Speech in New York City (28 August 1952)
Tom Stoppard1937–2025Interview with Janet Watts in The Guardian (21 March 1973)Reasoning will never make a man correct an ill opinion, which by reasoning he never acquired.
Jonathan Swift1667–1745Letter to a Young Clergyman (January 9, 1720), on proving Christianity to unbelievers- PSPublilius Syrus101–101 BCOften credited to Xenocrates
Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless.
Margaret Thatcher1925–2013From an interview for Italian television (RAI) (10 March 1986)- Margaret Thatcher1925–2013The Times (1980), as cited in
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), Wednesday
