Quotes about talk page 3
“I swear, talking to you is like talking to a really good-looking and mildly stupid brick wall.”
Derek Landy (1974) Irish children's writer
Source: Death Bringer
Henry Miller (1891–1980) American novelist
1945 Source: [Kaufman, Charlie, Inspirational Writing Advice From Charlie Kaufman - On Writing, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRfXcWT_oFs, YouTube, BAFTA Guru, 2017-01-06, 2020-03-09] (at 7:08 of 41:08)
“Of course I'm sane, when trees start talking to me, I don't talk back.”
Terry Pratchett book The Light Fantastic
Source: The Light Fantastic
“Don't talk to me about rules, dear. Wherever I stay I make the goddamn rules.”
Maria Callas (1923–1977) American-born Greek operatic soprano
On her controversial personality and performance, quoted in Wild Women Talk Back : Audacious Advice for the Bedroom, Boardroom, and Beyond (2004) by Autumn Stephens, p. 142
“Tis the privilege of friendship to talk nonsense, and to have her nonsense respected.”
Charles Lamb (1775–1834) English essayist
Source: The Life, Letters and Writings of Charles Lamb
“The louder he talked of his honor, the faster we counted our spoons.”
Worship
1860s, The Conduct of Life (1860)
Variant: The louder they talked of their honor, the faster we counted our spoons.
Source: The Conduct of Life: A Philosophical Reading
Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962) American politician, diplomat, and activist, and First Lady of the United States
The New York Times (1960), as cited in The Beacon Book of Quotations by Women (1992) by Rosalie Maggio, p. 156
“Patriots always talk of dying for their country, and never of killing for their country.”
Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) logician, one of the first analytic philosophers and political activist
Has Man a Future? (1962), p. 78
1960s
Emil M. Cioran book The Trouble With Being Born
The Trouble With Being Born (1973)
Source: The Trouble with Being Born
Jimmy Carter (1924) American politician, 39th president of the United States (in office from 1977 to 1981)
Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) British Conservative politician, writer, aristocrat and Prime Minister
Lewis Carroll (1832–1898) English writer, logician, Anglican deacon and photographer
Source: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass
“The question is not Can they reason?, nor Can they talk?, but Can they suffer?”
Jeremy Bentham book An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation
Source: An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation (1789; 1823), Ch. 17 : Of the Limits of the Penal Branch of Jurisprudence
Source: The Principles of Morals and Legislation
Context: The day has been, I grieve to say in many places it is not yet past, in which the greater part of the species, under the denomination of slaves, have been treated by the law exactly upon the same footing as, in England for example, the inferior races of animals are still. The day may come when the rest of the animal creation may acquire those rights which never could have been withholden from them but by the hand of tyranny. The French have already discovered that the blackness of the skin is no reason why a human being should be abandoned without redress to the caprice of a tormentor. It may one day come to be recognized that the number of legs, the villosity of the skin, or the termination of the os sacrum are reasons equally insufficient for abandoning a sensitive being to the same fate. What else is it that should trace the insuperable line? Is it the faculty of reason, or perhaps the faculty of discourse? But a full-grown horse or dog is beyond comparison a more rational, as well as a more conversable animal, than an infant of a day or a week or even a month, old. But suppose they were otherwise, what would it avail? The question is not Can they reason?, nor Can they talk?, but Can they suffer?
Nora Ephron (1941–2012) Film director, author screenwriter
Source: I Feel Bad about My Neck: And Other Thoughts on Being a Woman
Friedrich Nietzsche book Human, All Too Human
I.597
Human, All Too Human (1878)
Context: No one talks more passionately about his rights than he who in the depths of his soul doubts whether he has any. By enlisting passion on his side he wants to stifle his reason and its doubts: thus he will acquire a good conscience and with it success among his fellow men.
“People who don't think shouldn't talk.”
Lewis Carroll (1832–1898) English writer, logician, Anglican deacon and photographer
“If one plays good music, people don't listen, and if one plays bad music people don't talk.”
Oscar Wilde The Importance of Being Earnest
Algernon, Act I.
Source: The Importance of Being Earnest (1895)
Context: Of course the music is a great difficulty. You see, if one plays good music, people don't listen, and if one plays bad music people don't talk.
“Everyone likes talking about himself. - Hercule Poirot”
Agatha Christie book Death in the Clouds
Source: Death in the Clouds
Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) logician, one of the first analytic philosophers and political activist
“Happiness is a very pretty thing to feel, but very dry to talk about.”
Jeremy Bentham (1748–1832) British philosopher, jurist, and social reformer
Source: The Panopticon Writings
“Talking much about oneself can also be a means to conceal oneself.”
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German philosopher, poet, composer, cultural critic, and classical philologist
“I love talking about nothing, father. It is the only thing I know anything about.”
Lord Goring, Act I
An Ideal Husband (1895)
Jonathan Safran Foer book Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
Source: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
“We love each other like matches in the dark. We don't talk, we catch fire instead”
Mathias Malzieu book La Mécanique du cœur
Source: La Mécanique du cœur
“You're thinking about something, and it makes you forget to talk.”
Lewis Carroll book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Source: Alice in Wonderland
“I don't think… then you shouldn't talk, said the Hatter.”
Lewis Carroll book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Source: Alice in Wonderland
Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962) American politician, diplomat, and activist, and First Lady of the United States
Voice of America broadcast (11 November 1951)
“There is nothing so annoying as having two people talking when you're busy interrupting.”
Mark Twain (1835–1910) American author and humorist
“I never learn anything talking. I only learn things when I ask questions.”
Lou Holtz (1937) American college football coach, professional football coach, television sports announcer
Fernando Pessoa (1888–1935) Portuguese poet, writer, literary critic, translator, publisher and philosopher
“She'd also called me brave… unless she was talking to the catfish.”
Rick Riordan book The Lightning Thief
Source: The Lightning Thief
Georgia O'Keeffe (1887–1986) American artist
All those entire words piled on top of that poor little mountain seemed too much.
1970 - 1986, Some Memories of Drawings (1976)
Bob Keeshan (1927–2004) United States Marine
Essay in The New York Times (1979); as quoted in "Bob Keeshan, Creator and Star of TV's 'Captain Kangaroo,' Is Dead at 76" in The New York Times (24 January 2004) http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/24/arts/bob-keeshan-creator-and-star-of-tv-s-captain-kangaroo-is-dead-at-76.html?pagewanted=all
Sojourner Truth (1797–1883) African-American abolitionist and women's rights activist
Sojourner Truth, as quoted in The Harbrace Guide to Writing, Concise, p. 50, by Cheryl Glenn. Editorial Cengage Learning, 2011. ISBN 113317146X.
Bill Finger (1914–1974) American comic strip and comic book writer
[Jim Steranko, The Steranko History of Comics, Supergraphics, Reading, Pa., 1970, ISBN 0-517-50188-0, p.44]
Variant: Robin was an outgrowth of a conversation I had with Bob. As I said, Batman was a combination of Fairbanks and Sherlock Holmes. Holmes had his Watson. The thing that bothered me was that Batman didn't have anyone to talk to, and it got a little tiresome always having him thinking. I found that as I went along Batman needed a Watson to talk to. That's how Robin came to be. Bob called me over and said he was going to put a boy in the strip to identify with Batman. I thought it was a great idea
Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America
2011, Tucson Memorial Address (January 2011)
Frank Zappa (1940–1993) American musician, songwriter, composer, and record and film producer
The Real Frank Zappa Book (1989)
Gerhard Richter (1932) German visual artist, born 1932
on the art academy in Düsseldorf
after 2000, Gerhard Richter: An Artist Beyond Isms' (2002)
Leslie Weatherhead (1893–1976) English theologian
Source: The Christian Agnostic (1965), p.29