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Quotes about talking

319 quotes from 193 people

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“When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean⁠—neither more nor less.”
“The question is,” said Alice, “whether you can make words mean so many different things.”
“The question is,” said Humpty Dumpty, “which is to be master⁠—that’s all.”
Lewis Carroll1832–1898Through the Looking-Glass (1871), Chapter VIIn context
- Power
“Speak English!” said the Eaglet. “I don’t know the meaning of half those long words, and, what’s more, I don’t believe you do either!”
Lewis Carroll1832–1898Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865), Chapter IIIIn context
- Clever Jabs
A yawn is a silent shout.
G. K. Chesterton1874–1936
I do not argue with obstinate men. I act in spite of them.
Agatha Christie1890–1976The Mystery of the Blue Train (1928), Hercule Poirot
- Debate
Never interrupt me when I’m trying to interrupt you.
Winston Churchill1874–1965
- Clever Jabs
It is a good thing for an uneducated man to read books of quotations.
Winston Churchill1874–1965My Early Life: A Roving Commission (1930), Chapter 9 (Education At Bangalore).
- Quotations
I think ‘no comment’ is a splendid expression. I am using it again and again.
Winston Churchill1874–1965After using the phrase when interviewed by reporters in Miami on 12 February, 1946; quoted in Churchill’s “Iron Curtain” Speech Fifty Years Later by James W. Muller, University of Missouri Press (1999), p. 20
To jaw-jaw is always better than to war-war.
Winston Churchill1874–1965Remarks at a White House luncheon (26 June 1954)
- War & Peace
I am reminded of the professor who, in his declining hours, was asked by his devoted pupils for his final counsel. He replied, “Verify your quotations.”
Winston Churchill1874–1965The Second World War, Volume IV: The Hinge of Fate (1951)
- Advice
- Quotations
Anyone who speaks in the name of others is always an impostor.
ECEmil Cioran1911–1995A Short History of Decay (1949)
Beware of thinkers whose minds function only when they are fueled by a quotation.
ECEmil Cioran1911–1995Anathemas and Admirations (1987)
- Quotations
- Thinking
One does not inhabit a country; one inhabits a language. That is our country, our fatherland — and no other.
ECEmil Cioran1911–1995Anathemas and Admirations (1987)
- Patriotism
Just as war is freedom’s cost, disagreement is freedom’s privilege.
Bill Clintonborn 1946
- Debate
- Freedom
Every improvement in communication makes the bore more terrible.
FCFrank Moore Colby1865–1925
It is a flat’ning Thought, that the more we have seen, the less we have to say.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge1772–1834Letter to James Gillman (9 October 1825)
- Experience