“A man may break a word with you, sir; and words are but wind.”
William Shakespeare
PromisesWords
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.
“The silence often of pure innocence persuades when speaking fails.”
William Shakespeare
SilencePersuasion
“O, learn to read what silent love hath writ.”
William Shakespeare
LoveNonverbal
“It is a great misfortune not to have enough wit to talk well, nor enough judgment to keep silent.”
François de La Rochefoucauld
SilenceJudgment
“Questioning is not the mode of conversation among gentlemen.”
Samuel Johnson
ConversationManners
“I will speak ill of no man, and speak all the good I know of every body.”
Benjamin Franklin
KindnessGossip
“The greatest compliment that was ever paid me was when one asked me what I thought, and attended to my answer.”
Henry David Thoreau
ListeningRespect
“A Word that breathes distinctly has not the power to die.”
Emily Dickinson
Power Of WordsLegacy
“Get your facts first, and then you can distort 'em as much as you please.”
Mark Twain
FactsFunny
“Everyone hears only what he understands.”
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
UnderstandingListening
“You talk when you cease to be at peace with your thoughts.”
Kahlil Gibran
SilenceInner Peace
“If you would understand him, listen not to what he says but rather to what he does not say.”
Kahlil Gibran
ListeningEmpathy
“The small truth has words that are clear; the great truth has great silence.”
Rabindranath Tagore
TruthSilence
“Do not trust flatterers.”
Aesop
FlatteryCaution
“Brevity is a great charm of eloquence.”
Cicero
BrevityEloquence
“Whatever advice you give, be brief.”
Horace
AdviceBrevity
“Speak properly, and in as few words as you can, but always plainly; for the end of speech is not ostentation, but to be understood.”
William Penn
ClarityBrevity
“Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to conscience, above all liberties.”
John Milton
Free SpeechLiberty
“I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.”
Evelyn Beatrice Hall
Free SpeechTolerance
“If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind.”
John Stuart Mill
Free SpeechTolerance
“Error of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to combat it.”
Thomas Jefferson
Free SpeechReason
“If freedom of speech is taken away, then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter.”
George Washington
Free SpeechLiberty
“Without Freedom of Thought, there can be no such Thing as Wisdom; and no such Thing as publick Liberty, without Freedom of Speech.”
Benjamin Franklin
Free SpeechWisdom
“Liberty is meaningless where the right to utter one's thoughts and opinions has ceased to exist.”
Frederick Douglass
Free SpeechLiberty
“Words, like Nature, half reveal and half conceal the Soul within.”
Alfred, Lord Tennyson
WordsSoul