“Success depends on three things: who says it, what he says, how he says it; and of these three things, what he says is the least important.”

— John Morley, 1st Viscount Morley of Blackburn

Vol. II, bk. 5, ch. 4.
Recollections (1917)

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John Morley, 1st Viscount Morley of Blackburn37

British Liberal statesman, writer and newspaper editor 1838–1923

Sarra Manning (1950) British writer

Source: You Don't Have to Say You Love Me

“The most important things about the individual are what he cannot or will not say.”

Lawrence K. Frank (1890–1968) American cyberneticist

Source: Projective methods for the study of personality (1939), p. 395

“You have no idea how unimportant is all that the teacher says or does not say on the surface, and how important what he himself is as teacher.”

Rudolf Steiner (1861–1925) Austrian esotericist

Curative Education, lect. 2

“He knew how to say many false things that were like true sayings.”

Homér Ancient Greek epic poet, author of the Iliad and the Odyssey

“The things people say of a man do not alter a man. He is what he is. Public opinion is of no value whatsoever.”

Oscar Wilde book The Soul of Man under Socialism

The Soul of Man Under Socialism (1891)

“When a client says, It's hard to say, he usually knows what's really going on but doesn't want to talk about it…. I break through that reluctance by acting as if it wasn't there. 'Well, say it anyway. This is the place to say hard-to-say-things.”

William Glasser (1925–2013) American psychiatrist

Source: Choice Theory (1997), p. 65

“When you find a man you wish to marry, Tessa, remember this: You will know what kind of man he is not by the things he says, but by the things he does.”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Angel

Source: Clockwork Angel

“It's okay,” he said. “We're together.” He didn't say, or. After all they'd been through over the last year, he knew that the most important thing was that they were together. She loved him for saying that.”

Rick Riordan The Mark of Athena

Source: The Mark of Athena

“Sir Anthony Eden has been pretending that he is now invading Egypt in order to strengthen the United Nations. Every burglar of course could say the same thing, he could argue that he was entering the house in order to train the police. So, if Sir Anthony Eden is sincere in what he is saying, and he may be, he may be, then if he is sincere in what he is saying then he is too stupid to be a prime minister.”

Aneurin Bevan (1897–1960) Welsh politician

Speech on November 4th at "Law not War" rally in Trafalgar Square, London, during the Suez crisis of 1956.
1950s

“It’s in the nature of a good despot to say anything that will convince someone to do as he wishes. Only when he does not need them does he really say what he thinks. And by that time, of course, because he has no need of them, they are usually as good as dead. The secret of becoming a successful tyrant lies in an early ability to be all things to all people.”

Michael Moorcock book The Steel Tsar

Book 2, Chapter 7 “A Mechanical Man” (p. 397)
The Steel Tsar (1981)

“Success depends on three things: who says it, what he says, how he says it; and of these three things, what he says is the least important.”

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