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Communication Quotes
"If you're too specific, people will purposely mishear you so they can be outraged about whatever thing that usually outrages them."
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"If we were to understand how important it is to say something and say it well, maybe we wouldn't write a single word, but that would be tragic."
34
"By and large, the critics and readers gave me an affirmed sense of my identity as a writer. You might know this within yourself, but to have it affirmed by others is of utmost importance. Writing is, after all, a form of communication."
33
"So to that extent that was a very sharp reminder a few months out from the election that we weren't performing in the eyes of the public to the level that they wanted if they were going to re-elect us. So we went out and were much more upfront on issues."
33
"Mental communication without verbalization... all space is made up of waves and we are constantly sending and receiving messages from our brain."
33
"The other person always has a point, Listen to each other, and you'll hear it."
33
"The medium obscured the message."
33
"When a person pauses in mid-sentence to choose a word, that's the best time to jump in and change the subject! It's like an interception in football! You grab the others guy's idea and run the opposite way with it! The more sentences you complete, the higher your score! The idea is to block the other guy's thoughts and express your own! That's how you win!Conversations aren't contests!Ok, a point for you, but I'm still ahead."
33
"I try to address my audiences intelligently. The man in the street counts, but sometimes he forgets that he counts."
33
"When you don't ask for advice, but get it anyway, it has more to do with the needs and wants of the giver than you the receiver."
33
"The reason creatures wanted to use language instead of mental telepathy was that they found out they could get so much more done with language. Language made them so much more active. Mental telepathy, with everybody constantly telling everybody everything, produced a sort of generalized indifference to all information. But language, with its slow, narrow meanings, made it possible to think about one thing at a time -- to start thinking in terms of projects."
33
"The speed of communication, the speed of information transfer, the cheapness of communication, the ease of moving things around the world are a difference in kind as well as degree."
33
"In Japanese and Italian, the response to ['How are you?'] is 'I'm fine, and you?' In German it's answered with a sigh and a slight pause, followed by 'Not so good."
33
"The only benefit a woman can have in talking too much is defeating a man who troubles her too much."
33
"Talking is good. It's good to disturb the silence."
33
"Speak ill of no man, but speak all the good you know of everybody."
32
"Writing has nothing to do with communication between person and person, only with communication between different parts of a person's mind."
32
"Listen to what flows from your own mouth. Is it really the message you intend to give? Is it coming out the way you want it to? Is it being received the way you hope it will be?"
32
"Talk is cheap when your words are of no value."
32
"I like cinema audiences. I respect them, and I talk to them just like I would anybody I know."
32
"He was probably being so quiet because he was trying not to say it out loud."
32
"Words are the most powerful drug used by mankind."
32
"UN-Impressives of the Poor Listener Thinking about what you should have done, could have done, or need to do. Allowing your emotional reactions to take over. Interrupting the person talking. Replying before you hear all the facts. Jumping to conclusions and making assumptions. Being preoccupied with what you're going to say next. Getting defensive or being over-eager. One-upmanship-feeling the urge to compete and add something bigger, better, or more significant than what the speaker has to share. Imposing an unsolicited opinion. Ignoring and changing the subject altogether."
32
"First! Does this need to be said? Second! Does this need to be said by me? And third! Does this need to be said by me right now?"
31
"Honest discussions - even and perhaps especially on topics about which we disagree - can help us resist hypocrisy and arrogance. They can also help us live up to the basic ideals, such as liberty and justice for all, on which our country was founded."
31
"The chief deficiency I see in the skeptical movement is its polarization: Us vs. Them - the sense that we have a monopoly on the truth; that those other people who believe in all these stupid doctrines are morons; that if you're sensible, you'll listen to us; and if not, to hell with you. This is nonconstructive. It does not get our message across. It condemns us to permanent minority status."
31
"Words make the intangible aspects of human experience communicable, and a single sentence can shatter our world view and assist us in the formulation of a new one."
31
"We live in a day that nobody's lived in before: where you can touch more people. The message I'll speak tonight and the message that I speak at home, people in India will hear. It's just an amazing day."
31
"Not telling is just as interesting as telling I have found. Why speech, that short verbal journey from inside to outside can be excrutiating under certain circumstances is fascinating."
30
"They place great stress on the clarity of our language for expressing nuances and showing subtleties."
30
"The idea economy is a conversation. Try to channel or control that conversation and you will stop the chatter."
30
"In the guise of frankness many people ruin their world by saying unpleasant things to friends and family. The bad words make them a bad world."
30
"That's what careless words do. They make people love you a little less."
30
"It's like there are all these languages available, especially in terms of image. Why confine yourself to only English? There's all these languages and possibilities and concepts to speak or communicate with."
29
"Speaking words of endearment where words of comfort availed not."
29
"One never said the things one wanted - one remembered them all an hour afterwards. On the other hand one usually said a lot of things one shouldn't, simply from a sense that one had to say something."
29
"One great idea of the biblical revelation is that God is manifest in the ordinary, in the actual, in the daily, in the now, in the concrete incarnations of life, and not through purity codes and moral achievement contests, which are seldom achieved anyway. We do not think ourselves into new ways of living, we live ourselves into new ways of thinking. The most courageous thing we will ever do is to bear humbly the mystery of our own reality."
29
"Sometimes there is a greater lack of communication in facile talking than in silence."
29
"I'd rather someone be honest and tell me something that I didn't want to hear, rather than dishonest and tell me something I want to hear."
29
"You've got to say what you mean and mean what you say...Doubt in your voice is an open door people will shove right through."
29
"I choose to choose few words each day. Yes! few words that count. Few words that can make impact. Few words that talk much. Few words that can make people ponder to wonder. Few words that are indelible. Few words that can leave distinctive footprints on minds. Though we may fail to mind our words, we shall never fail to mind the works of our words."
28
"With Jackson there was quiet solitude. Just to sit and look at the landscape. An inner quietness. After dinner, to sit on the back porch and look at the light. No need for talking. For any kind of communication."
28
"The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place."
28
"Many people begin their criticism with sincere praise followed by the word 'but', which signals that the criticism is about to begin. This may make the listener questions the sincerity of the praise. Use 'and' instead, and provide constructive advice rather than criticism. this is possibly the most effective ways to address an issue in written form without seeming false in your praise."
28
"And once again, only the Small Things were said. The Big Things lurked unsaid inside."
28
"Never close your lips to those whom you have already opened your heart."
28
"Words do not express thoughts very well; every thing immediately becomes a little different, a little distorted, a little foolish. And yet it also pleases me and seems right that what is of value and wisdom of one man seems nonsense to another."
28
"I can't know your feelings", he said ,"if you don't know them yourself."
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