Conversation Quotes - Page 8

• A happy marriage is a long conversation which always seems too short.

  Andre Maurois

  Love, Happiness, Anniversary

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• Conversation opens our views, and gives our faculties a more vigorous play; it puts us upon turning our notions on every side, and holds them up to a light that discovers those latent flaws which would probably have lain concealed in the gloom of unagitated abstraction.

  William Melmoth

  Views, Play, Light

  William Melmoth (1805). “Fitzosborne's Letters on several subjects ... Eleventh edition, with the Dialogue on Oratory [translated from Tacitus]: to which is prefixed a life of the author”, p.191

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• I regret that I was never an athlete. I regret there isn't time in life. I regret that so many of my friends have died. I regret that I was not brave at certain times in my life. I regret that I'm not beautiful. I regret that my conversation is largely with myself. I'm not part of the conversation of the world.

  Richard Rodriguez

  Beautiful, Regret, Athlete

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• That silence is one of the great arts of conversation is allowed by Cicero himself, who says, there is not only an art, but even an eloquence in it

  Hannah More

  Art, Women, Silence

  Hannah More (1835). “The Works of Hannah More”, p.345

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• Look at your [English] ladies of quality are they not forever parting with their husbands - forfeiting their reputations - and is their life aught but dissipation? In common genteel life, indeed, you may now and then meet with very fine girls - who have politeness, sense and conversation - but these are few - and then look at your trademen's daughters - what are they? poor creatures indeed! all pertness, imitation and folly.

  Fanny Burney

  Girl, Daughter, Husband

  "The Early Journals and Letters of Fanny Burney". Vol. 1, p. 47, journal entry, November 17, 1768.

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• Repose is as necessary in conversation as in a picture.

  William Hazlitt

  Repose

  William Hazlitt (1871). “The Round Table. A collection of Essays ... By W. H. and Leigh Hunt”, p.483

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• When a man gets talking about himself, he seldom fails to be eloquent and often reaches the sublime.

  Josh Billings

  Men, Talking, Sublime

  Josh Billings (1972). “Uncle Sam's Uncle Josh: Or, Josh Billings on Practically Everything, Distilled from Josh's Rum and Tansy New England Wit by Donald Day”

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• I have abandoned all particular forms of devotion, all prayer techniques. My only prayer practice is attention. I carry on a habitual, silent, and secret conversation with God that fills me with overwhelming joy.

  Brother Lawrence

  God, Teacher, Prayer

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• In conversation the game is, to say something new with old words. And you shall observe a man of the people picking his way along, step by step, using every time an old boulder, yet never setting his foot on an old place.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Time, Men, Feet

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1959). “Emerson: A Modern Anthology”

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• There is no roles. No one is keeping any roles. The drummer is also answering everybody and everything. So it is a constant conversation and communication between musicians on an extremely high level with extremely valuable material, motifs, and melodies.

  Miroslav Vitous

  Communication, Musician, Roles

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• Congress's definition of torture in those laws - the infliction of severe mental or physical pain - leaves room for interrogation methods that go beyond polite conversation.

  John Yoo

  Pain, Law, Definitions

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• It has been years since I have seen anyone who could even look as if he were in love. No one's face lights up any more except for political conversation.

  Margaret Caroline Anderson

  Light, Years, Political

  "The Fiery Fountains" by Margaret Caroline Anderson, (part 1), 1951.

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• Amongst such as out of cunning hear all and talk little, be sure to talk less; or if you must talk, say little.

  Jean de la Bruyere

  Littles, Cunning, Ifs

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• John Wesley's conversation is good, but he is never at leisure. He is always obliged to go at a certain hour. This is very disagreeable to a man who loves to fold his legs and have his talk out as I do.

  Samuel Johnson

  Men, Leisure, Legs

  In James Boswell 'The Life of Samuel Johnson' (1791) vol. 3, p. 230 (31 March 1778)

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• Every man has some favorite topic of conversation, on which, by a feigned seriousness of attention, he may be drawn to expatiate without end.

  Samuel Johnson

  Men, Attention, May

  Samuel Johnson, Elizabeth Carter, Samuel Richardson, Catherine Talbot (1825). “The Rambler: A Periodical Paper, Published in 1750, 1751, 1752”, p.299

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• It is commonly agreed that children spend more hours per year watching television than in the classroom, and far less in actual conversation with their parents.

  Paul Weyrich

  Children, Years, Parent

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• Chamber music - a conversation between friends.

  Catherine Drinker Bowen

  Friendship, Chamber Music, Chamber

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• Do you know that conversation is one of the greatest pleasures in life? But it wants leisure.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Life, Want, Leisure

  W. Somerset Maugham (2015). “The Trembling of a Leaf: Stories of the South Sea Islands”, p.61, Xist Publishing

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• The poor girl does not know how to have a conversation. Unfortunately, she does know how to speak.

  Winston Churchill

  Girl, Doe, Language

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• The art of conversation consists far less in displaying much wit oneself than in helping others to be witty: the man who leaves your company pleased with himself and his own wit is very well pleased with you.

  Jean de la Bruyere

  Spirit, Deals, Cleverness

  "Of Society And Conversation". "Characters", Book by Jean De La Bruyère, www.ourcivilisation.com. 1688.

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• 'What is the use of a book', thought Alice, 'without pictures or conversations?'

  Lewis Carroll

  Book, Reading, Wonderland

  Alice's Adventures inWonderland ch. 1 (1865)

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• The great secret of succeeding in conversation is to admire little, to hear much; always to distrust our own reason, and sometimes that of our friends; never to pretend to wit, but to make that of others appear as much as possibly we can; to hearken to what is said and to answer to the purpose.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Loss, Secret, Purpose

  Benjamin Franklin “Poor Richard Day by Day”, Lulu.com

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• Method is not less requisite in ordinary conversation than in writing, provided a man would talk to make himself understood.

  Joseph Addison

  Writing, Men, Ordinary

  Joseph Addison, Richard Steele (1855). “The Spectator”, p.8

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• I myself spent nine years in an insane asylum and I never had the obsession of suicide, but I know that each conversation with a psychiatrist, every morning at the time of his visit, made me want to hang myself, realizing that I would not be able to cut his throat.

  Antonin Artaud

  Suicide, Time, Morning

  "Van Gogh, the Man Suicided by Society". Essay by Antonin Artaud, 1947.

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• When a man says he had pleasure with a woman he does not mean conversation.

  Samuel Johnson

  Mean, Men, Doe

  James Boswell, Samuel Johnson, Edmond Malone (1824). “The life of Samuel Johnson, LL. D., comprehending an account of his studies, and numerous works, in chronological order: a series of his epistolary correspondence and conversations with many eminent persons; and various original pieces of his composition, never before published; the whole exhibiting a view of literature and literary men in Great Britain, for near half a century during which he flourished”, p.237

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