“Surely only boring people went in for conversations consisting of questions and answers. The art of true conversation consisted in the play of minds.”

“Conversations consist for the most part of things one does not say.”

“Too much consistency is as bad for the mind as it is for the body. Consistency is contrary to nature, contrary to life. The only completely consistent people are the dead.”

“Conversations bore me, to visit people bores me, the sorrows and joys of my relatives bore me to my soul.”

“If it is asked why Socrates permits certain forms of art to be retained in the ideal state instead of consistently banishing all alike, the answer is surely obvious: these are, in the opinion of Socrates, the forms which art will take in the hands of men who understand its true nature.”

“Conversation. What is it? A Mystery! It's the art of never seeming bored, of touching everything with interest, of pleasing with trifles, of being fascinating with nothing at all.”

“Social organizations are flagrantly open systems in that the input of energies and the conversion of output into further energy input consists of transactions between the organization and its environment.”

“In childhood, the impetus of conversation is curiosity. The child talks to ask questions. But one of its first lessons, as it advances, is that a question is an intrusion, and an answer a deceit.”

“There is no conversation more boring than the one where everybody agrees.”

“Is it a form of social play that underneath the words people say, there is a different conversation going on?”