Quotes About Communication

Words matter . . . They really do.

A problem clearly stated is a problem half solved.

Think back to some encounter you had today in your office, in a store, with a servant or tradesman in your home. Try to remember just the form your request took. Making all due allowances for courtesy, or for the respectfulness due to superiors and elders, was there not in addition a tentativeness about your request? Didn't you ask for coöperation in such a way as to leave room for refusal, or grudging action, or for being ignored?

many are crippled for knowing an impressive word who would have had no such trouble if they had lived in a simpler and less self-indulgent society.

The first exercise is to spend an hour every day without saying anything except in answer to direct questions.

Talk for fifteen minutes a day without using I, me, my, mine.

The correction of the "I mean," the "As a matter of fact" habit, takes cooperation. If you realize that you have picked up a verbal mannerism, call on the friend to whom you talk most fluently and emotionally. It is fairly easy to control such a mannerism in the presence of someone we hardly know, but in the heat of discourse the offending phrase will crop up in every other sentence.

DO take the initiative and introduce yourself to the people you don't know. DO say your first and last names: "Hello, I'm Heather Wells." This saves the other person from asking, "What's your last name?" DO be inclusive and greet the people you know, even if you saw them just hours earlier.

In nothing do we lay ourselves so open as in our manner of meeting and salutation. —JOHANN KASPAR LAVATER

In some cultures, "How do you do?" and "How are you?" are considered impolite and too personal.

DON'T gang up on the other person and enlist others to your side just to prove that you're right. DON'T raise your voice. DON'T respond sarcastically. DON'T take a difference of opinion personally.

Adding 'to you' after the word 'introduce' will help you maintain the order of an introduction. Never say 'I'd like you to meet...' when introducing someone, as it reverses the correct order of an introduction. 'You to' is nonstandard grammar, and the only time to say 'you to' is when referring to a certain Irish rock band.

She didn't say yes or no; she said nothing in a rush of words. After she had rung off, it began. Slowly at first. Like fog wisping into his mind. Only a small doubt. He could, at first, brush it away. But it moved in thicker; tightening around the coils of his brain, blotting out reason.

We'll fix up a date." It was so easy to say, and so easy to avoid doing it. He was feeling better all the time. It had been right that Laurel was delayed. It was in order that she wouldn't have to be inspected by Sylvia. Sylvia wouldn't like Laurel; they weren't cut out of the same goods.

He waited for her to say more but only silence roiled about them.

He rang Laurel as soon as he reached the apartment. Before he fixed a drink, before even lighting a cigarette. There was no answer to the call. He rang her every fifteen minutes after that, and at six, when the dusk was moving across the open windows, and when there was still no answer to his call, he stepped out into the courtyard where he could look up at her apartment. But there were no lights in it.

If I can't be personal, I don't want to argue," said his hostess categorically. "I may be missing your points, but you're much too busy dodging mine.

What's wrong? Has Francis been rude? Then you must try to overlook it. I know you wouldn't think so, but he is thoroughly upset by Tom Erskine's death; and when Francis is troubled he doesn't show it, he just goes and makes life wretched for somebody.

He added pointedly

Mrs. Pollifax wondered why, when she was being her most serious, people found her so amusing.

Silence isn't always golden; sometimes it's just yellow.

My-way-not-your-way is the most tension-producing, dissatisfying, time-wasting, energy-draining, relationship-breaking, activity known to man, woman or child.

And because he loves me, he tries to understand me. It is my fear that stops me talking to him. Because even if it is irrational and it isn't what he wants to hear, Keith has loved me for so long, he'd find a way to make what I feel work for us both. I would do the same for him. That's what our love is about.

Just because we're friends, doesn't mean I shouldn't have to say sorry. You deserve that respect.