Quotes About Communication

The president did not truly listen to anybody. The more you talked, the less he listened.

In politics, the smart move is not to say no and to know how to finesse yes.

Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, the Egyptian strongman, ably stroked the president and said, "You are a unique personality that is capable of doing the impossible." (To Sisi, Trump replied, "Love your shoes. Boy, those shoes. Man.…")

There was, curiously, general agreement in the West Wing that Donald Trump, the media president, had one of the most dysfunctional communication operations in modern White House history.

he had no interest in personnel problems, since they put the emphasis on other people.

But not only didn't he read, he didn't listen. He preferred to be the person talking.

Typos drove him wild. He might lash out for days when he found one, or when someone else, more likely, pointed out a mess-up in a letter or document prepared under his name—the infuriated concern of someone thinking somebody else's laziness might reveal his own weaknesses. He was spitting furious now because the legal brief was filled with botches, the second time in a week this had happened—the Unites States! In the first line! A violent overthrown!

But not only didn't he read, he didn't listen. He preferred to be the person talking. And he trusted his own expertise—no matter how paltry or irrelevant—more than anyone else's. What's more, he had an extremely short attention span, even when he thought you were worthy of attention.

Almost everybody in the White House followed Trump's thinking by tracking whom he had called the night before.)

he had an almost autistic level of unresponsiveness;

There was now a fair amount of back-of-the-classroom giggling about who had called Trump what. For Steve Mnuchin and Reince Priebus, he was an "idiot." For Gary Cohn, he was "dumb as shit." For H. R. McMaster he was a "dope." The list went on.

What a fucking idiot," said Murdoch, shrugging, as he got off the phone.

He came out of his first long meeting with Trump thinking it had been a disconcertingly weird experience. Trump talked nonstop and constantly repeated himself.

How we relate to God is generally how we relate to others.

All propaganda has to be popular and has to adapt its spiritual level to the perception of the least intelligent of those towards whom it intends to direct itself." —Adolf Hitler

He was the oldest. When we left Kentucky, our folks told him to look after me. Didn't say a word to me. Wouldn't have occurred to them.

I quote others only in order to better express myself.

I quote others only to better express myself.

He was doubtless an understanding Fellow that said, there was no happy Marriage but betwixt a blind Wife and a deaf Husband.

There is no pleasure to me without communication: there is not so much as a sprightly thought comes into my mind that it does not grieve me to have produced alone, and that I have no one to tell it to.

When all is summed up, a man never speaks of himself without loss; his accusations of himself are always believed; his praises never.

I quote others only in order the better to express myself.

Poetry like love risks everything on signs.

Being apart was wrong. Simply lying side by side did more for a relationship than words. A warm bed, a nest of animal intimacy. Words could be misunderstood, whereas loving companionship bred trust.