Quotes About Communication

The woman who can whisper in her husband's ear wields more power de facto, or rather is often alleged to, than the colleagues who can only send official requests and memos.

letters of Cicero

One apocryphal tale describes how a virtuous plebeian, the aptly named Marcus Caedicius ('disaster teller'), heard the voice of some unknown god warning him that Gauls were approaching, but his report was ignored because of his lowly status. It turned out to be a lesson for the patricians – learned the hard way – that the gods communicated with plebeians too.

Muchos romanos ricos hablaban algo de griego, mejor que el latín que podían saber los teanos, pero no siempre demasiado bien. Se sabía que los griegos de verdad se burlaban despiadadamente del terrible acento romano.

Do those words matter? Of course they do, because they underpin an idiom that acts to remove the authority, the force, even the humour from what women have to say.

It turned out to be a lesson for the patricians – learned the hard way – that the gods communicated with plebeians too.

The Latin word for 'rams', rostra, became the name of the platform and gave modern English its word 'rostrum'.

Dogs come when they're called; cats take a message and get back to you later.

a white person who wants to know about our religion but won't listen. There

the brogue tripping from his tongue like a slashed wineskin.

You said you'd not get weird after sex.

She saw the skin pull under the driver's ears and knew that he was laughing.

It was true that one could be more alone with someone than by oneself.

everything—sound, sight, feeling, certainly understanding. Christine remembered little of that night other than the smear of life and loss pulling her under, sinking her soul, and the sight of her mother crumpled in a chair with Uncle Harry and his glass of Johnny Walker Red. A man called, he'd said…

How does a mother tell her child that the memories he holds of his father are incorrect, that the truth does not even remotely resemble the memory? How does she tell him about the gaping holes in the recall that make it all a sham?

Do not underestimate the importance of stating the obvious. Most people don't because they think it goes without saying, but it does need saying. Like 'I love you' and 'I'm sorry' and 'I can't live without you'. You know, that kind of bullshit.

manageable." "Mother, I need to go back there for a few days." Gloria

The next challenge was how to give it to her. Should he just put it in the spare bedroom, take her by the hand, and when she spotted the cradle in the middle of the room say, "What do you think about a baby?" Did that sound ridiculous? Did he care?

It's the talking that keeps people together, Christine. Don't let anybody tell you any different. A person's got to know that somebody cares about what he has to say.

Anybody that's ever loved has been hurt, some worse than others. Hearts ripped, trust gone, even hope tossed in the trash." Those eyes grew brighter, the voice softer. "But if you fight for it and keep talking, you can get through it to the other side. And that's where you have another chance.

The dang man could tell a good story fluffed with terms like gonna do and want to do but he never quite grasped the idea of did.

relationships are like gardens. They require constant tending and vigilance to prevent weeds, encourage growth, and promote a bountiful harvest.

The extreme idealist or formalist thinks of language in terms of how completely it represents the tiger, and since it can never fully get that right, would rather lapse into silence than speak.

There was an unwritten rule that hearing people who knew sign should identify themselves whenever they were around Deaf people. Otherwise the Deaf people might be carrying on an extremely private conversation, assuming no one around them could understand them. To not identify yourself was a betrayal of trust.