Quotes About Dialogue

How often have I noticed or, indeed, listened to him? We talk, but do I actually listen, or is our conversation mainly a question of my waiting for him to stop and for it to be my turn to say something? For how many of us is that what conversation means - the setting up of our lines?

Angus thought about this. She was right. That was why our national conversation was so bad. Courtesy had been abandoned in favour of the put-down, the attack, the calculated sound bite. What sort of national conversation was that? The answer came to him immediately: none.

It would have been better to talk,' muttered Mma Makutsi. Mma Ramotswe agreed. It was always – always – better to talk.

Nobody challenged men openly, of course, but when women spoke now amongst themselves" (pg.33)

Listen, my little peasant

And how did this misfortune occur? inquired the latter, resuming the interrupted conversation.

My people keep telling me I shouldn't write letters like this to critics. The way I see it, critics get to say what they want to about my work, so why shouldn't I be able to say what I want to about theirs?

we don't talk about what we see; we see only what we can talk about

Language] can serve as a medium through which we create new understandings and new realities as we begin to talk about them. In fact, we don't talk about what we see; we see only what we can talk about.

Fenworth!' Yes?' You bore me with your prattle.' Oh, regrettable that. Why don't you seek the company of someone who doesn't prattle? Seems like a good solution to your problem.

there are discussions and then there are conversations. They aren't always the same thing, you know.

Vianello had the knack of getting people to talk. Especially if they were Venetians, the people he interviewed invariably warmed to this large, sweet-tempered man who gave every appearance of speaking Italian reluctantly, who was only too glad to lapse into their common dialect, a linguistic change that often carried its speakers along to unconscious revelation.

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

I believe that we must reach our brother, never toning down our fundamental oppositions, but meeting him when he asks to be met, with a reason for the faith that is in us, as well as with a loving sympathy for them as brothers.

A technique for good listening is to listen to what your partner has to say without interrupting and let them know you heard them by telling them what you think they just said.

When asked the inevitable question of "Does the ball ever talk back?" Mark answered, "The only time that happens is when it's going over the fence, it yells back to me that I shouldn't have thrown that pitch.

Disagreement is not oppression. Argument is not assault. Words – even provocative or repugnant ones – are not violence. The answer to speech we do not like is more speech.

Las redes se han convertido en el medio ideal para instaurar nuevos dogmas y aplastar al oponente justo cuando más convendría escucharlo.

si llegamos a la conclusión de que el diálogo respetuoso no conduce a ninguna parte, la única herramienta que nos queda es la violencia.

You cannot tell people simultaneously "You must understand me" and "You cannot understand me".' Evidently a whole lot of people can make those demands simultaneously. But they shouldn't, and if they do then they should realize that their contradictory demands cannot be granted.

difficult conversations are almost never about getting the facts right. They are about conflicting perceptions, interpretations, and values.

Paradoxically, there is also considerable persuasion power in inquiry and listening.

local people notice we aren't there to learn from them but to teach them; we won't ask questions but will give answers; we aren't there to be with them but to train them; we won't build trust but will attempt to transform them; we're not there to dialogue but to lecture. Paulo Freire, the Brazilian educator, calls this a "subject-object relationship." Unchecked ethnocentrism turns human beings into objects to be manipulated.

When a person is talking, they aren't listening; Fools are made this way.