Quotes about talk
page 47

Henry James photo

“Most English talk is a quadrille in a sentry-box.”

Said by the Duchess in Book V, ch. XIX.
The Awkward Age (1899)

Joe Biden photo

“That’s how they beat the living hell out of us across the country, saying that we’re talking about defunding the police. We’re not. We’re talking about holding them accountable. We’re talking about giving them money to do the right things. We’re talking about putting more psychologists and psychiatrists on the telephones when the 911 calls through. We’re talking about spending money to enable them to do their jobs better, not with more force, with less force and more understanding.”

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

2020, December
Source: Biden on a call with Civil Rights leaders. ( December 10, 2020 https://theintercept.com/2020/12/10/biden-audio-meeting-civil-rights-leaders/).

https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/2020/12/23/biden-did-not-say-country-doomed-because-african-americans/4034937001/ Fact check: Biden's 'country is doomed' quote is being taken out of context on social media

Milton Friedman photo

“Now, when anybody starts talking about this [an all-volunteer force] he immediately shifts language. My army is 'volunteer,' your army is 'professional,' and the enemy's army is 'mercenary.' All these three words mean exactly the same thing. I am a volunteer professor, I am a mercenary professor, and I am a professional professor. And all you people around here are mercenary professional people. And I trust you realize that. It's always a puzzle to me why people should think that the term 'mercenary' somehow has a negative connotation.”

Milton Friedman (1912–2006) American economist, statistician, and writer

And this is much more broadly based. In fact, I think mercenary motives are among the least unattractive that we have.
The Draft: A Handbook of Facts and Alternatives, Sol Tax, edit., chapter: “Why Not a Voluntary Army?” University of Chicago Press (1967) p. 366, based on the Conference Held at the University of Chicago, December 4-7, 1966

Brooke Nevin photo
Wesley Clark photo
Edmund Burke photo
Lila Downs photo
Mary Church Terrell photo
Hunter Biden photo

“Call your mother . It seems every time we talk she tells people I'm in appropriate with you. I don't want to make matters worse for you or myself.”

Hunter Biden (1970) American lawyer, investment advisor, and second son of former Vice President Joe Biden

26 July 2018 to Natalie Biden

Milton Friedman photo

“Now, when anybody starts talking about this [an all-volunteer force] he immediately shifts language. My army is 'volunteer,' your army is 'professional,' and the enemy's army is 'mercenary.' All these three words mean exactly the same thing. I am a volunteer professor, I am a mercenary professor, and I am a professional professor. And all you people around here are mercenary professional people. And I trust you realize that. It's always a puzzle to me why people should think that the term 'mercenary' somehow has a negative connotation. I remind you of that wonderful quotation of Adam Smith when he said, 'You do not owe your daily bread to the benevolence of the baker, but to his proper regard for his own interest.'”

Milton Friedman (1912–2006) American economist, statistician, and writer

And this is much more broadly based. In fact, I think mercenary motives are among the least unattractive that we have.
Source: The Draft: A Handbook of Facts and Alternatives, Sol Tax, edit., chapter: “Recruitment of Military Manpower Solely by Voluntary Means,” chairman: Aristide Zolberg, University of Chicago Press (1967) p. 366, based on the Conference Held at the University of Chicago, December 4-7, 1966, also in Two Lucky People, Milton and Rose Friedman, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998, p. 380.

Stephen Vincent Benét photo
Enoch Powell photo
John F. Kennedy photo
Prosanta Chakrabarty photo
Aldous Huxley photo

“I'm interested in truth, I like science. But truth's a menace, science is a public danger. As dangerous as it's been beneficent. … It's curious … to read what people in the time of Our Ford used to write about scientific progress. They seemed to imagine that it could go on indefinitely, regardless of everything else. Knowledge was the highest good, truth the supreme value; all the rest was secondary and subordinate. True, ideas were beginning to change even then. Our Ford himself did a great deal to shift the emphasise from truth and beauty to comfort and happiness. Mass production demanded the shift. Universal happiness keeps the wheels steadily turning; truth and beauty can't. And, of course, whenever the masses seized political power, then it was happiness rather than truth and beauty that mattered. Still, in spite of everything, unrestricted scientific resarch was still permitted. People still went on talking about truth and beauty as though they were sovereign goods. Right up to the time of the Nine Years' War. That made them change their tune all right. What's the point of truth or beauty or knowledge when the anthrax bombs are popping all around you? That was when science first began to be controlled — after the Nine Years' War. People were ready to have even their appetites controlled then. Anything for a quiet life. We've gone on controlling ever since. It hasn't been very good for truth, of course. But it's been very good for happiness. One can't have something for nothing. Happiness has got to be paid for.”

Source: Brave New World (1932), Mustapha Mond, in Ch. 16

“Love is a practical desire for the good of another. It is much easier to talk about than to carry into action because it requires such sensitivity and unselfishness.”

Wendy Beckett (1930–2018) British Catholic nun and presenter of documentaries for the BBC on the history of art

Source: Sister Wendy Beckett, from a The Telegraph interview titled 'Culture Clinic: Sister Wendy Beckett' dated 8 May 2009.

Nathalie Cabrol photo
Chetan Bhagat photo

“Life is tough when you are always talking to people smarter than you.”

Source: The 3 Mistakes of My Life (2008), P. 5

“I do repent of wine and talk of wine,
Of idols fair with charms like silver fine:
A lip-repentance and a lustful heart—
O God, forgive this penitence of mine!”

Asjadi persian poet

A Literary History of Persia, Vol. 2, p. 123 https://archive.org/details/a-literary-history-of-persia-vol-2-1964
Poetry

Megan Whalen Turner photo
Walker Percy photo
E.E. Cummings photo
Dwight D. Eisenhower photo

“The essence of leadership is to get others to do something because they think you want it done and because they know it is worth while doing -- that is what we are talking about.”

Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969) American general and politician, 34th president of the United States (in office from 1953 to 1961)

Remarks at the Republican Campaign Picnic at the President's Gettysburg Farm (September 12, 1956). Source: Eisenhower Presidential Library. Archived https://web.archive.org/web/20210125121539/https://www.eisenhowerlibrary.gov/eisenhowers/quotes from the original https://www.eisenhowerlibrary.gov/eisenhowers/quotes on January 25, 2021.
1950s

Dorothy Thompson photo

“And yet, [Hitler] is not without a certain charm. But it is the soft, almost feminine charm of the Austrian! When he talks it is with a broad Austrian dialect.”

Dorothy Thompson (1893–1961) American journalist and radio broadcaster

Source: "I Saw Hitler" 1932, p. 14

Alicia Garza photo
Stephen Wolfram photo
Kadda Sheekoff photo
Tera Patrick photo
Arnold Schwarzenegger photo
Justin Barrett photo
Lauren Jauregui photo
Michael Moorcock photo

“A threat to free speech. It was marvelous how they accepted the principles of democracy and rejected them at the same time by talk of mob action!”

Michael Moorcock (1939) English writer, editor, critic

Source: The Winds of Limbo aka The Fireclown (1965), Chapter 4 (p. 151)

A.E. Housman photo

“It is supposed that there has been progress in the science of textual criticism, and the most frivolous pretender has learned to talk superciliously about "the old unscientific days."”

A.E. Housman (1859–1936) English classical scholar and poet

The old unscientific days are everlasting; they are here and now; they are renewed perennially by the ear which takes formulas in, and the tongue which gives them out again, and the mind which meanwhile is empty of reflexion and stuffed with self-complacency.
"The Application of Thought to Textual Criticism", a lecture delivered on August 4, 1921

William Ewart Gladstone photo
David Cay Johnston photo

“Citizenship is not something that you can outsource! ...We've got to do the work ourselves, and you've got to know, and you've got to talk to people.”

David Cay Johnston (1948) Investigative journalist and author

David Cay Johnston, "It's Even Worse Than You Think" (Jan 27, 2018)

David Cay Johnston photo

“We live in a society where... presidents and candidates for president of both parties are always saying "God Bless America" and "This is the greatest ever" and they're not talking about the real facts of what's going on.”

David Cay Johnston (1948) Investigative journalist and author

David Cay Johnston; How The One Percent Enrich Themselves at Government Expense (Jun 23, 2009)

Sara Shane photo

“All the experience I had in television, radio, theater, stage and films gave me confidence in front of crowds. Because of that, I can talk to an audience of a thousand people without a moment's nervousness, and talk without a script for hours.”

Sara Shane (1928–2022) American actress

Interview with Elaine Hollingsworth https://web.archive.org/web/20071003020618/http://www.tarzan.cc/int-sarashane.html (July 9, 2007)

Sam Peckinpah photo
Donald J. Trump photo

“We are losing a lot of people to the Internet. We have to do something. We have to go see Bill Gates and a lot of different people that really understand what's happening. We have to talk to them [about], maybe in certain areas, closing that Internet up in some way. Some people will say, ‘Freedom of speech, Freedom of speech.'”

Donald J. Trump (1946) 45th President of the United States of America

These are foolish people.
Google's Eric Schmidt calls for 'spell-checkers for hate and harassment' https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/dec/08/googles-eric-schmidt-spell-checkers-hate-harassment-terrorism, 8 December 2015, by Alex Hern.
2015

Ray Dalio photo

“Make believability-weighted decisions. ...
Operate by principles ... that are so clearly laid out that their principles can be easily assessed and you and others can see if you walk the talk.”

Ray Dalio (1949) American businessman

[Principles: Life and Work, https://books.google.com/books?id=6LGuDgAAQBAJ&pg=PR10, xiv]
Principles: Life and Work (2017)

William G. Boykin photo

“Talk through options and offer suggestions. Don't ignore an obvious problem in your family life and in your marriage.”

William G. Boykin (1948) Recipient of the Purple Heart medal

Source: Man to Man: Rediscovering Masculinity in a Challenging World (2020), p. 103

Céline Cousteau photo
Thomas Jefferson photo

“Don't talk about what you have done or what you are going to do.”

Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) 3rd President of the United States of America
John Marshall photo
Nelson Mandela photo
Michael J. Sandel photo
Stanley Baldwin photo

“The Conservatives can't talk of class war: they started it.”

Stanley Baldwin (1867–1947) Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

G. M. Young, Stanley Baldwin (1952), p. 31
Undated

“It's amazing how even with the language barrier women still communicate. You talk to women around the world and you find out we all have the same problems.”

Beverly White (1928–2021) American politician

As quoted in Tooele Transcript-Bulletin https://archive.ph/rZrYW (October 12, 1995)
State in regards to the World Conference on Women, 1995

Yunjin Kim photo

“There have been times when casting directors were talking loudly on the phone right outside the room where I was auditioning. I didn’t know what to do.”

Yunjin Kim (1973) South Korean-American actress, born 1973

As quoted in "Kim Yun-jin still hungry for the next role" in The Korea Herald (30 March 2017) http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20170330000974

“If a god ever decides to talk to you, the best thing you can do is pretend you don’t hear him.”

Jim C. Hines (1974) American writer

Source: The Goblin Quest Series, Goblin War (2008), Chapter 7 (p. 144)

Walter Reuther photo

“We will not meet the problems of tomorrow by talking about yesterday's concepts.”

Walter Reuther (1907–1970) Labor union leader

Text of television interview with Mike Wallace, New York, New York, October 17 and 18, 1960, as quoted in Walter P Reuther: Selected Papers (1961), by Henry M. Christman, p. 310
1950s, Television interview with Mike Wallace (1960)

Tony Leung photo

“If I'm not working, I'll go on my boat and have a few drinks. Most of my friends are outside the movie business. It's too much to mix with other celebrities. When I go out I prefer no one talk about movies. I'd rather talk about waterskiing, the sea, beaches, seafood...”

Tony Leung (1962) Hong Kong actor

"I Told Kar-wai I Couldn't Move, Couldn't Breathe" in TIME Asia (11 October 2000) http://edition.cnn.com/ASIANOW/time/features/interviews/2000/10/11/int.tony_leung.html

Joe Armstrong photo

“Documents are full of paragraphs. But the paragraphs don't have name. So, we can't talk about the paragraphs.”

Joe Armstrong (1950–2019) British computer scientist

A Few Improvement to Erlang

Nithyananda photo

“Destroying the country is not a solution. These demonstrations are a way to express frustration but it is not the solution. We have to find a way to talk.”

In Haiti, bishops call on government for urgent action to quell ‘fratricidal warfare’ https://www.churchinneed.org/in-haiti-bishops-call-on-government-for-urgent-action-to-quell-fratricidal-warfare/ (10 October 2019)

Katie Leung photo

“I used to be really, really shy, which is never a good thing because you never speak up for yourself. Now I don't stop talking! But in terms of being recognised, it doesn't really happen that often. I get the odd person coming up and saying they love the films.”

Katie Leung (1987) Scottish actress

"Movies - interview - Katie Leung" in BBC (9 July 2007) http://www.bbc.co.uk/films/2007/07/09/katie_leung_harry_potter_5_2007_interview.shtml

Hideo Nakata photo

“Film making is a miniature sized capitalism. Money and money people talk. Some people tend to think they can be more creative than the director they hire.”

Hideo Nakata (1961) Japanese film director

Hideo Nakata interview: on directing Chatroom, the Internet, and making films in the UK https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/hideo-nakata-interview-on-directing-chatroom-the-internet-and-making-films-in-the-uk/ (June 8, 2011)

Barbara Stanwyck photo

“People talk about 'my career,' but 'career' is too pompous a word. It was a job, and I have always felt very privileged to be paid for what I love doing.”

Barbara Stanwyck (1907–1990) American actress

As quoted in "Barbara Stanwyck: 'I'm a Tomorrow Woman" by Aljean Harmetz, The New York Times (March 22, 1981), p. A1

“If I could talk face to face with the pilot who dropped the bomb, I could tell him we cannot change history. But we should try to do good things for the present and for the future to promote peace.”

Phan Thi Kim Phuc (1963) Child depicted in the Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph taken during the Vietnam War on June 8, 1972

"`Time To Heal, Time For Peace'" in Chicago Tribune https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:6VPc2Y8SsL4J:https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1996-11-12-9611120185-story.html+&cd=21&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us (12 November 1996)

Opal Tometi photo

“I was interested in giving folks like black, poor people who’ve been marginalized, brutalized, an opportunity to have more visibility. Before seven years ago, we could barely get the news to talk about police violence, let alone police death.”

Opal Tometi (1984) Nigerian–American writer, strategist and community organizer

How the movement that’s changing America was built and where it goes next, By Jamil Smith, Rolling Stone, (16 June 2020)

Menotti Lerro photo
Example (musician) photo

“Don't speak
Don't speak no more
Cos your eyes do the talking
Don't speak
Don't speak no more
Cos your eyes do the talking
You don't have to say nothing
Say nothing
Cos your eyes do the talking”

Example (musician) (1982) English rapper and singer

"Say Nothing" (song)
("Say Nothing" on YouTube (with lyrics)) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tctb0OHZnqQ
Studio albums, The Evolution of Man (2012)

“[I]t would be unfortunate if, for all the talk of celebrating differences and diversity, we ultimately came to insist that justice requires sameness.”

Source: Not Biology or Culture Alone: Response to El-Hout et al. (2021) (with Lewis G. Halsey; 2021), p. 5

Mwanandeke Kindembo photo
Mwanandeke Kindembo photo
Mwanandeke Kindembo photo
Mwanandeke Kindembo photo
Mwanandeke Kindembo photo
Daniel Dae Kim photo

“It's one thing to talk about lack of diversity and lack of representation. But that doesn't matter if you're not good at what you're supposed to be doing.”

Daniel Dae Kim (1968) American actor

"Is There Anything 'Insurgent' Star Daniel Dae Kim Can't Do?" in NBC Asian America (24 March 2015) https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/ddk-diversity-media-america-n320081

Jet Li photo

“I think the most important is when I was young, I learnt martial arts, that is my special key. I can use my unique martial arts in the film. But after a few years, I really want to do something different... like using martial arts to talk about peace.”

Jet Li (1963) Chinese martial artist and actor

As quoted in Jet Li Interview Transcript https://edition.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/asiapcf/01/29/talkasia.li.script/ in CNN (January 29, 2003)

Fyodor Dostoyevsky photo
David Lloyd George photo

“What was the use of talking about freedom if they had millions of people tethered to slums?”

David Lloyd George (1863–1945) Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

Speech to the Oxford University Liberal Club at the Oxford Union (15 June 1926), quoted in The Times (16 June 1926), p. 18
Leader of the Liberal Party in the House of Commons

“Oh, history...you’ll be talking about reality next, as if it were something special too.”

Genevieve Cogman (1972) novelist and game designer

Source: The Masked City (2015), Chapter 15 (p. 201)

Nima Arkani-Hamed photo

“... like most physicists, I really enjoy talking about physics.”

Nima Arkani-Hamed (1972) American-Canadian physicist

[A Conversation with Nima Arkani-Hamed: The Power of Principles, Physics Revealed (Part I), April 2, 2021, Ideas Roadshow, YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6_iJRY6nU4] (quote at 2:47 of 57:39)

Joseph Fred Naumann photo

“I’d also like to say to our priests: we can’t fail to talk to our people about these real sins that affect the lives of our people. If we talk about sins they don’t commit, of what good is that?”

Joseph Fred Naumann (1949) Catholic archbishop

Archbishop Naumann: “If the Church is silent on the destruction of life, we’re being negligent” https://www.catholicworldreport.com/2017/12/04/archbishop-naumann-if-the-church-is-silent-on-the-destruction-of-life-were-being-negligent/ (December 4, 2017)

Joan Didion photo

“It’s hard to talk like a human being when one hasn’t been treated like one for years!”

Sheri S. Tepper (1929–2016) American fiction writer

Source: Singer from the Sea (1999), Chapter 7, “Aufors Leys” (p. 106)

“We need to the right thing. Take this seriously, not to verbalize about it, and not to talk.”

Robert Muhiirwa (1958) Ugandan Roman Catholic bishop

Source: Fort Portal Bishop calls for more environmental protection awareness https://www.ntv.co.ug/ug/news/national/fort-portal-bishop-calls-for-more-environmental-protection-awareness-3328498 (March 19, 2021)

Bhumibol Adulyadej photo

“My philosophy has been to take things day by day. When I talk about this philosophy it makes people perhaps a little surprised.”

Bhumibol Adulyadej (1927–2016) King of Thailand

Source: "King Bhumibol's Reign" in The New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/1989/05/21/magazine/king-bhumibol-s-reign.html (21 May 1989)

Robert A. Heinlein photo
Aleksandar Vučić photo

“The most important thing is that we show determination to continue the dialogue and that we will always try to solve everything by talking. I want to believe that it is possible.”

Aleksandar Vučić (1970) President of Serbia

Source: "Excerpts of Address" https://www.predsednik.rs/en/press-center/news/address-by-the-president-of-the-republic-of-serbia-on-16th-june-2021 (16 June 2021)

Leopold II of Belgium photo

“If instead of talking about neutrality, the Chamber took care of our trade, Belgium would become the richest in the world.”

Leopold II of Belgium (1835–1909) King of the Belgians

All the King's Men' A search for the colonial ideas of some advisers and "accomplices" of Leopold II (1853-1892). (Hannes Vanhauwaert), Preface:A historiographical picture of Leopold II (1835-1909) http://www.ethesis.net/leopold_II/leopold_II.htm#2.%20 Leopold to Edouard Blondeel, the Belgian Consul in Egypt, 1855.

Ti-Anna Wang photo

“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)

Zhou Enlai photo
Joe Biden photo

“[W]hen people talk about climate, I think jobs. Within our climate response lies an extraordinary engine of job creation and economic opportunity ready to be fired up.”

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

2021, April 2021
Source: 22 April 2021 https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2021/04/22/remarks-by-president-biden-at-the-virtual-leaders-summit-on-climate-opening-session/

Salman Aziz photo

“Learn to talk honestly, truthfully, logically, ethically, and boldly.”

Salman Aziz (1993) Bangladeshi independent author and artist

Source: https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/11053329-learn-to-talk-honestly-truthfully-logically-ethically-and-boldly

Arundhati Roy photo
Arundhati Roy photo
José Hermano Saraiva photo

“That made the portuguese this type that we are. We don't have any race. There can be no talk about a portuguese race. If there was a race, we would be an anti-race. Composed of the people coming from all over during millions of years.”

José Hermano Saraiva (1919–2012) Historian, Jurist, Politician

Original: (pt) Isso fez do português este tipo que nós somos. Nós não temos raça nenhuma. Não se pode falar na raça portuguesa. Se houvesse uma raça, nós éramos uma anti-raça. Feita com gente vinda de toda a parte ao longo de milhões de anos.
Source: "História Essencial de Portugal", episode 1

“In difficult transplanting operations, I talk to the tree with humility while doing my best to find the right solution. Then, the tree teaches me how to overcome the obstacle.”

Konami Tsukamoto (1949) Japanese tree doctor

Source: The Goi Peace Foundation Lecture Series - Lecture 18: Learning from trees - Lecture Series: Values for the 21st Century https://www.goipeace.or.jp/en/work/lecture/ - 4 Mar 2008 - Archive https://web.archive.org/web/20211107060323/https://www.goipeace.or.jp/en/work/lecture/

Wang Qishan photo

“If there is no peaceful, stable international environment, there will be no development to talk of.”

Wang Qishan (1948) Chinese politician

Source: "World cannot shut China out, vice president says, in jab at U.S." in Reuters https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-diplomacy/world-cannot-shut-china-out-vice-president-says-in-jab-at-u-s-idUSKCN1U303U (7 July 2019)