“Facts are ventriloquists' dummies. Sitting on a wise man's knee they may be made to utter words of wisdom; elsewhere, they say nothing, or talk nonsense...”

“You're alive!" Fezzik cried.
The man in black sat immobile, like a ventriloquist's dummy, just his mouth moving. "That is perhaps the most childishly obvious remark I have ever come across…”

William Goldman book The Princess Bride

“Talk, talk, talk: the utter and heartbreaking stupidity of words.”

William Faulkner book Mosquitoes

“I just can’t sit while people are saying nonsense in a meeting without saying it’s nonsense.”

James D. Watson (1928) American molecular biologist, geneticist, and zoologist.

“Here in the shadow of death it is hard
To utter the final word.
I'll only say, then,
"Without saying."
Nothing more,
Nothing more.”

Dokyo Etan (1642–1721) Son of Sanada Nobuyuki

“True wisdom knows
it must comprise
some nonsense
as a compromise,
lest fools should fail
to find it wise.”

Piet Hein (1905–1996) Danish puzzle designer, mathematician, author, poet

“[A] man who contradicts himself may have succeeded in exercising his vocal chords. But from the point of view of imparting information, of communicating facts (or falsehoods) it is as if he had never opened his mouth. He utters words, but does not say anything.”

P. F. Strawson (1919–2006) British philosopher

“Talking and eloquence are not the same: to speak, and to speak well, are two things. A fool may talk, but a wise man speaks…”

Ben Jonson (1572–1637) English writer

“Talking and eloquence are not the same: to speak and to speak well are two things. A fool may talk, but a wise man speaks.”

Heinrich Heine (1797–1856) German poet, journalist, essayist, and literary critic

“Learned we may be with another man's learning: we can only be wise with wisdom of our own.”

Michel De Montaigne (1533–1592) (1533-1592) French-Occitan author, humanistic philosopher, statesman