Quotes About Conversation

From Alexander the grammarian, not to be captious; nor in a carping spirit find fault with those who import into their conversation any expression which is barbarous or ungrammatical or mispronounced, but tactfully to bring in the very expression, that ought to have been used, by way of answer, or as it were in joint support of the assertion, or as a joint consideration of the thing itself and not of the language, or by some such graceful reminder.

Indeed, for Christians, the unending conversation about Jesus is the most important conversation there is. He is for us the decisive revelation of God—of what can be seen of God's character and passion in a human life. There are other important conversations. But for followers of Jesus, the unending conversation about Jesus is the conversation that matters most.

Yet because the Bible is a human product as well as sacred scripture, the continuing dialogue needs to be a critical conversation. There are parts of the Bible that we will decide need not or should not be honored, either because we discern that they were relevant to ancient times but not to our own, or because we discern that they were never the will of God.13*

to do Christian theology within the framework of religious pluralism and the cross-cultural study of religion. Given its Christian focus and audience, it is written primarily for Christians but also for anybody interested in listening in on a Christian conversation. The conversation is one that has been going on within myself, with other Christians in the present, and with Christian voices from the past.

The result: the monarchical model of biblical authority is replaced by a dialogical model of biblical authority. In other words, the biblical canon names the primary collection of ancient documents with which Christians are to be in a continuing dialogue.

Thus the authority of the Bible is its status as our primary ancient conversational partner.

Silence is one of the great arts of conversation.

What is sweeter than to have someone with whom you may dare discuss anything as if you were communing with yourself? How could your enjoyment in times of prosperity be so great if you did not have someone whose joy in them would be equal to your own?

The truth is seldom welcome, especially at dinner.

Money does talk, but it has a limited vocabulary.

I already told you," said Adam. "There is no need to swear." "Sorry, it just fucking slipped out," said Zeb.

I'm all ears," she said. An untruth—her ears were a small part of her—but I let that pass.

Now she said, "I'm up to the four-letter words." And I said, "You mean the dirty ones, like shit?" And she laughed and said, "Worse ones than that." And I said, "You mean the c-word and the f-word?" and she said, "No. Like love.

and when we spoke / we spoke / the sounds of our voices fell / into the air single and / solid and rounded and really / there / and then dulled, and then like sounds / gone, a fistful of gathered / pebbles there was no point / in taking home, dropped on a beachful / of other coloured pebbles

It's wonderful to hear his voice, even if she can't depend on having any sort of a conversation with him. His interventions tend to be one-sided: if she answers him, he doesn't often answer back. But it was always more or less like that between them.

I've got nothing against telepathy, said Jane; but the telephone is so much more dependable.

We would lie in those afternoon beds, afterwards, hands on each other, talking it over. Possible, impossible. What could be done? We thought we had such problems. How were we to know we were happy?

We would like to hear the story of Fuck," says Abraham Lincoln politely.

We use butter, I said. When we can get it. Or margarine. A lot of the time it's margarine. Butter, he said, musing. That's very clever. Butter. He laughed. I could have slapped him.

he often talked to himself and he was the best conversationalist he knew; [...]

I finished my tea. This was the moment, I felt, when I should thank him graciously for his kindness and leave. Otherwise we would have to exchange the stories of our lives and I was too depressed about mine to want to do that.

What I miss is what she'd say. What she would have said.

The way to get a man interested and to hold his interest was to talk about himself, and then gradually lead the conversation around yourself—and keep it there.

Talking to Rhett was comparable only to one thing, the feeling of ease and comfort afforded by a pair of old slippers after dancing in a pair too tight.