“More matter, with less art.”
William Shakespeare
ClarityBrevity
Communication Quotes
200 FAMOUS QUOTES · COMMUNICATION
Communication Quotes
Read 200 of the best communication quotes about listening, speaking, words, silence and conversation, from Shakespeare, Confucius, Mark Twain and more.
“Words, words, words.”
William Shakespeare
WordsFunny
“His words are bonds, his oaths are oracles.”
William Shakespeare
TrustIntegrity
“They have been at a great feast of languages, and stolen the scraps.”
William Shakespeare
LanguageFunny
“I understand a fury in your words, but not the words.”
William Shakespeare
ToneEmotion
“The tongues of dying men enforce attention like deep harmony.”
William Shakespeare
ListeningLast Words
“Silence is the perfectest herald of joy.”
William Shakespeare
SilenceJoy
“Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears.”
William Shakespeare
SpeechesPersuasion
“The honourablest part of talk is to give the occasion.”
Francis Bacon
ConversationListening
“He that questioneth much, shall learn much, and content much.”
Francis Bacon
QuestionsLearning
“True eloquence consists in saying all that should be said, and that only.”
François de La Rochefoucauld
EloquenceBrevity
“Language is the dress of thought.”
Samuel Johnson
LanguageThinking
“That is the happiest conversation where there is no competition, no vanity, but a calm quiet interchange of sentiments.”
Samuel Johnson
ConversationFriendship
“Proper words in proper places, make the true definition of a style.”
Jonathan Swift
WritingStyle
“I made it a rule to forbear all direct contradiction to the sentiments of others, and all positive assertion of my own.”
Benjamin Franklin
DiplomacyRespect
“Conversation is an art in which a man has all mankind for his competitors.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
ConversationSkill
“The man who can make hard things easy is the educator.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
TeachingClarity
“Say what you have to say, not what you ought. Any truth is better than make-believe.”
Henry David Thoreau
HonestyAuthenticity
“The right word may be effective, but no word was ever as effective as a rightly timed pause.”
Mark Twain
TimingPublic Speaking
“It usually takes me more than three weeks to prepare a good impromptu speech.”
Mark Twain
Public SpeakingFunny
“Speak clearly, if you speak at all; carve every word before you let it fall.”
Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.
ClaritySpeaking
“Language most shows a man: speak, that I may see thee.”
Ben Jonson
CharacterLanguage
“Good words are worth much, and cost little.”
George Herbert
KindnessWords
“He has occasional flashes of silence, that make his conversation perfectly delightful.”
Sydney Smith
SilenceFunny
“Speaking without thinking is shooting without taking aim.”
Thomas Fuller
ThinkingCaution