Quotes about conversation
page 12

“At the start of every conversation ask yourself what can I give, not what can I take.”

Isaac Mashman (2000) businessman, speaker

“I hate polite conversation. I hate it when people stand around and go, 'Hi, how are you?”

Madonna (1958) American singer, songwriter, and actress

I hate words that don't have any reason or meaning. Also I hate it when people smoke in elevators and closed in places. It's just so rude. <br class="br"> http://womenshistory.about.com/od/quotes/a/madonna_2.htm.

Hate, People

“We want parents and teachers to regularly have conversations with young men and women about God’s plan for their lives. These should be ordinary conversations; otherwise, when the topic of vocations comes up, it seems like something arcane, unfamiliar, or mysterious.”

Paul Stagg Coakley (1955) Catholic archbishop

Oklahoma City’s archbishop on Satanists, vocations, and a unique canonization case https://www.catholicworldreport.com/2016/09/19/oklahoma-citys-archbishop-on-satanists-vocations-and-a-unique-canonization-case/ (September 19, 2016)

God, Teachers, Parent, Women

“True happiness arises, in the first place, from the enjoyment of one's self, and in the next, from the friendship and conversation of a few select companions.”

Joseph Addison (1672–1719) politician, writer and playwright

Friendship, Happiness

“The best conversations remain those without space between two mouths.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: (it) Le conversazioni migliori restano quelle senza spazio tra due bocche.
Source: prevale.net

“Turn on the news and every conversation is a confrontation.”

Joe Biden (1942) 47th Vice President of the United States (in office from 2009 to 2017)

Source: https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/biden-celebrates-drop-in-unemployment-even-as-job-growth-weakens-1.1663842 Biden Celebrates Drop in Unemployment Even as Job Growth Weakens

2021, October 2021

“The confusion is not my invention. We cannot listen to a conversation for five minutes without being acutely aware of the confusion. It is all around us and our only chance now is to let it in.”

Samuel Beckett (1906–1989) Irish novelist, playwright, and poet

Tom F. Driver, "Beckett by the Madeleine" (1961), Columbia University Forum 4 (Summer 1961): 21-25; it later appeared in Stanley A. Clayes, ed., Drama and Discussion (1967), pp. 604-7, as quoted in "Rick On Theater" 25 January 2018 http://rickontheater.blogspot.com/2018/01/beckett-by-madeleine.html.

Chance

“I am going back home in one piece, which I was a little bit nervous about. It's not how I wanted it to go, but I think we've opened bigger doors and bigger conversations.”

Simone Biles (1997) American gymnast

"Olympics 2021 - Simone Biles discusses her mental health, challenges after winning bronze on beam" in ESPN (3 August 2021) https://www.espn.com/olympics/story/_/id/31953744/olympics-2021-simone-biles-explains-challenges-balance-beam-final

Home, Thinking

“I mean, I’m getting better now that I’m in my 30s. But in my 20s, I was very shy. Very, very shy. I wouldn’t initiate a conversation.”

Rebecca Lim (1986) Singaporean actress

As quoted in "Rebecca Lim didn’t speak till she was 4 years old – and no one knows why" in CNA Lifestyle (15 March 2020) https://cnalifestyle.channelnewsasia.com/trending/rebecca-lim-house-party-for-2-podcast-12533918

“Listening to the conversation, his faith in the stupidity of human nature was fully restored.”

Michael Moorcock (1939) English writer, editor, critic

Source: The Winds of Limbo aka The Fireclown (1965), Chapter 17 (p. 252)

Faith, Nature, Stupidity

“I think especially television is a conversation between the writer and the audience, and they're bringing all of their humanity to it. The actors are really just this conduit in the middle, who everybody kind of thinks of like the player, but no, we're really the instrument.”

Penn Badgley (1986) American actor and musician

Source: "Penn Badgley Explores Joe Goldberg's 'Primal' Parenting In You Season 3" in ELLE https://www.elle.com/culture/movies-tv/a37886117/penn-badgley-you-season-3-interview/ (18 October 2021)

Thinking

“The conversations about human rights in China, they can be a little numbingly familiar after you talk about it.”

Ti-Anna Wang (1989) Chinese dissident

"A Real-Life Fight For Freedom In 'Nine Days'" in NPR https://www.npr.org/2013/04/17/176779468/a-real-life-fight-for-freedom-in-nine-days (17 April 2013)

“But for those who lived in non-Christian lands, it was decreed that the work of conversion was an imperative. It is, in a sense, a pity that this work will always be remembered for its association either with conquest, with religious fratricide or with imperialism.”

Christopher Hitchens book The Missionary Position

Source: 2010s, 2011, The Missionary Position, Mother Theresa in Theory and Practice (2012)

Sense

“If both China and Russia were liberal democracies, I don’t think we would be having conversations about great power competition. So I believe that regime type does matter, and the ideological dimension that comes with that regime type also plays a role in great power competition.”

Michael McFaul (1963) American academic and diplomat

"Toward a “Grander Strategy of Containing Putin’s Russia”: Ambassador Michael McFaul on Engagement and Containment in a New Era of Great Power Competition" in The Yale Review of International Studies http://yris.yira.org/comments/5314 (June 2021)

Democracy, Thinking

“Recollection of God leades to the conversion of human qualities into the Divine Attributes.”

Muhammad ibn Abd al-Jabbar ibn al-Hasan al-Niffari

Source: The Sayings and Teachings of the Great Mystics of Islam (2004), p. 80

God

“We need to continue the conversation with mutual respect, and aloha. We need to keep talking about this with our friends, our family members, our colleagues, so that when the opportunity does come for change, we'll be ready.”

Mike Gabbard (1948) Samoan American politician

Source: Ahead of March for Life, 2 Democratic State Lawmakers Discuss the Pro-Life Movement and the Theme of ‘Unity’ https://www.ncregister.com/news/ahead-of-march-for-life-2-democratic-state-lawmakers-discuss-the-pro-life-movement-and-the-theme-of-unity (29 January 2021)

Change, Family

“Conversely, a shallow, quick breath only half-nourishes, and is the partner of fear, nervousness and self-consciousness; whilst the uneven uncontrolled breath allows the person to become ‘beside themselves* with the emotional disturbance and indecision.”

Vera Stanley Alder (1898–1984) British artist

Source: Humanity Comes of Age, A study of Individual and World Fulfillment (1950), Chapter XV The Essential Science of Breathing

Personality, Fear, Indecision

“"You must tell them that there must be a new union or there will be chaos," he [Shevardnadze] implored me. That evening, when I hosted republic leaders for dinner — a mixed group of presidents, prime ministers, and foreign ministers — I saw around the table and in the conversation a microcosm of the post-coup Soviet Union’s potential — and its problems. Whatever euphoria that they felt with their post-putsch independence declarations had given way to a marked degree of realism. "Independence sounds nice, but we have to live, and we have to be practical," observed the Prime Minister of Moldova, Valeriu Muravsky. That was the persistent theme that I heard from every one of the republic leaders, with the sole exception of the Georgian Prime Minister, Vissarion Gugushvili, though even he spoke of the need for economic cooperation once Georgian independence was recognized internationally.”

James Baker (1930) Former U.S. Secretary of State

The Politics of Diplomacy: Revolution, War and Peace 1989-1992 (1995) by James Addison Baker, p. 531
1990s

Problem, Way

“Dialogue for the sake of conversation serves no ethical, moral or practical purpose. Dialogue that is one way, or in which we are silent about our grave concerns about injustice, or where we end up kowtowing, appeasing or unwittingly complicit with evil, is immoral.”

Benedict Rogers (1974) London-based human rights activist

Vatican should talk to China — but not at any price https://www.ucanews.com/amp/vatican-should-talk-to-china-but-not-at-any-price/93985 (1 October 2021)

Evil, Way

“Where no visible fruit can be found, there you may be sure is no conversion.”

J.C. Ryle (1816–1900) Anglican bishop

Source: Old Paths (1878), Ch. XII: "Conversion", p. 335

“Turn on the news and every conversation is a confrontation. Every disagreement is a crisis. But when you take a step back and look at what’s happening, we’re actually making real progress. Maybe it doesn’t seem fast enough”

Joe Biden (1942) 47th Vice President of the United States (in office from 2009 to 2017)

Biden Celebrates Drop in Unemployment Even as Job Growth Weakens (8 October 2021) https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/biden-celebrates-drop-in-unemployment-even-as-job-growth-weakens-1.1663842 <br class="br">2021, October 2021

“THEODOTUS: Caesar: you are a stranger here, and not conversant with our laws. The kings and queens of Egypt may not marry except with their own royal blood. Ptolemy and Cleopatra are born king and consort just as they are born brother and sister.
BRITANNUS (shocked): Caesar: this is not proper.
THEODOTUS (outraged): How!
CAESAR (recovering his self-possession): Pardon him, Theodotus: he is a barbarian, and thinks that the customs of his tribe and island are the laws of nature.”

George Bernard Shaw Caesar and Cleopatra

Act II; sometimes paraphrased as: The customs of your tribe are not laws of nature.
1890s, Caesar and Cleopatra (1898)

Law, Nature, Thinking, Sister

“Burns's gifts, expressed in conversation, are the theme of all that ever heard him. All kinds of gifts: from the gracefulest utterances of courtesy, to the highest fire of passionate speech; loud floods of mirth, soft wailings of affection, laconic emphasis, clear piercing insight; all was in him.”

Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish philosopher, satirical writer, essayist, historian and teacher

1840s, Heroes and Hero-Worship (1840), The Hero as Man of Letters

Passion

“Being respected as a reflection of fear will only last as long as the fear remains. Conversely, being respected as a form of love will last forever.”

Titon Rahmawan

Fear, Love

“What we can learn from the good is that we will be filled with gratitude. Conversely, from the bad we learn to become a stronger person.”

Titon Rahmawan

Personality, Gratitude, Learning

“Pornography is definitely not a reflection of real life. Accepted or rejected, it will always be at odds. However, sexual expression in pornography is a celebration of the denial of women's dignity. For a man, it is an affirmation of the myth of masculinity to dominate, to rule and to show his might. Conversely, for a woman, sex must be accepted as a form of willingness to be submissive, to submit to the destruction of her own dignity. In pornography there is no love, no passion or drama. There is only manipulation of the body, the mind and the lowly human desire to be satisfied. That humans cannot be separated from animalistic lust.”

Titon Rahmawan

Love, Life, Women, Passion

This quote waiting for review.

“Does literature change social reality? Perhaps not. But it reveals it, brings it into the conversation—which is no small thing. It puts it in tension with reality itself. It strips it of its masks. It takes away the official discourse, or at least makes it squirm.”

José Baroja (1983) Chilean author and editor

Source: Interview to José Baroja. https://grupoigneo.com/blog/entrevista-jose-baroja-literatura/

Literature, Change, Reality

This quote waiting for review.

“Teachers do not merely transmit knowledge; we keep alive the conversation between generations that allows a community to understand who it has been, who it is, and who it aspires to become.”

José Baroja (1983) Chilean author and editor

Source: La sociedad que olvidó a sus profesores. Por José Baroja. (2026, 13 junio). Le Monde Diplomatique. https://www.lemondediplomatique.cl/la-sociedad-que-olvido-a-sus-profesores-por-jose-baroja.html

Understanding, Teachers, Knowledge, Communication

Quotes about conversation page 12

Quotes about conversation
page 12