Quotes About Dialogue

More people saying what they believe would be a great improvement. Because I often do I am unfit for common intercourse.-Nero Wolfe in "Blood Will Tell

I was sorry I had missed it because talk by those two is always worth hearing. You get good examples of how much a man can say in a few words and also of how little he can say in a lot of words.

He announced aggressively, 'I want to see Archie Goodwin.' 'You are.' 'I are what?' 'Seeing Archie Goodwin. Who am I seeing?' 'Oh, a wise guy.' We were off to a bad start, but we got it straightened out that he meant that I was a wise guy, not that I was seeing one...

He dropped sheets on the fire, turned to look at her, and inquired, "Do you use 'infer' and 'imply' interchangeably, Miss Blount?" She did fine. She said simply, "No." "This book says you may. Pfui. I prefer not to interrupt this auto-da-fé. You wish to consult me?

Will she report what she told me?' 'No.' A corner of his mouth twitched. 'That's why I put up with you; you could have answered with fifty words and you did it with one.' 'I've often wondered. Now tell me why I put up with you.' 'That's beyond conjecture. ...

To write a letter is to send a message to the future; to speak of the present with an addressee who is not there, knowing nothing about how that person is (in what spirits, with whom) while we write and, above all, later: while reading over what we have written. Correspondence is the utopian form of conversation because it annihilates the present and turns the future into the only possible place for dialogue.

It's all right to hold a conversation, but you should let go of it now and then.

is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.

Listen more than you talk. Nobody learned anything by hearing themselves speak.

Would I ever support Trump? No. But would I try to talk to him about issues I care about, from climate change to criminal justice reform, and encourage him to take a better approach? Of course. As I told him all those years ago, life is too short for enemies and the spirit of forgiveness is far stronger than the spirit of revenge. Would Donald agree? Sadly, I doubt it.

Effective listening is more than simply avoiding the bad habit of interrupting others while they are speaking or finishing their sentences. It's being content to listen to the entire thought of someone rather than waiting impatiently for your chance to respond.

However, once the priest has been arrested, the two sit together beside the corpse of the bank robber in a hut and speak amicably while outside there is hard rain – a scene which for the first time crystallizes the dialogue between Catholicism and communism that would be so much a part of Greene's later work.

If we think only the thoughts that are customary to us, and listen only to the words of those who are of our mind, we are little likely to find refreshment and renewal in our minds, and thus all too likely to suppose that we have come to the end of all deliberations that we have to make.

His hand goes out, gesturing toward the conifers. It amazes me how much they say, when you let them. They're not that hard to hear. The (other) man chuckles. We've been trying to tell you that since 1492.

What?" he asks the tree. "What? " The tree feels no need to reply.

Trees used to talk to people all the time. Sane people used to hear them." The only question is whether they'll talk again, before the end.

Bohr had learned to be alert for bright students who were not afraid to argue.

What some now call 'emerging Christianity' or 'the emerging church' is not something you join, establish, or invent. You just name it and then you see it everywhere- already in place! Such nongroup groups, the 'two or three' gathered in deep truth, create a whole new level of affiliation, dialogue, and friendship...

You are in a position of total powerlessness, and your ego is fighting it. All you can do is surrender and enter into this dance of unhindered dialogue, this circle of praise, this web of communion that we call the Blessed Trinity.

Who are you talking to?" "This goose," I assure him. And in fact he looks relieved. "I was afraid you were talking to yourself.

We cannot learn from one another until we stop shouting at one another—until we speak quietly enough so that our words can be heard as well as our voices.

One does not hold a conversation with him. One holds a symposium. – Elizabeth Drew

it's hard to talk sensibly with giants - their massive heads tend to get lost in the clouds

I kind of liked that, actually. You couldn't multitask while talking to him. The dialogue required one hundred percent focus. If all conversations were like that, I imagined people wouldn't say so much stupid garbage.