A collection of quotes on the topic of talk, talking, people, doing.
“If people talk behind your back, it's because you're ahead of them.”
“In real life, I'm a really smiley person. I smile when I talk and I laugh.”
Source: No Longer Human
and that's not what I wanted.
The Michael Jackson Interview: The Footage You Were Never Meant to See (2002)
In conversation with Timothée Chalamet for i-D Magazine (2 November 2018) https://i-d.vice.com/en_uk/article/evwwma/harry-styles-interviews-timothee-chalamet-photos
“Talk is cheap. Show me the code.”
Message to linux-kernel mailing list, 2000-08-25, Torvalds, Linus, 2006-08-28 http://lkml.org/lkml/2000/8/25/132,
2000s, 2000-04
Source: A Tale of Love and Darkness
As quoted in [Richard Wortman, Scenarios of Power: From Alexander II to the abdication of Nicholas II, https://books.google.com/books?id=wGp4M2DzfMQC&pg=PA341, 1995, Princeton University Press, 0-691-02947-4, 341–]
Source: The Book of Disquiet
Source http://kotaku.com/5564576/live-from-nintendos-e3-briefing
The Second Notebook
No Longer Human
Source: “L’illusion wagnérienne”, Portraits et souvenirs, Société d’édition artistique, 1899, 206‒220
Part One, Ch. 1
On the Road (1957)
Context: They danced down the streets like dingledodies, and I shambled after as I've been doing all my life after people who interest me, because the only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes "Awww!"
Variant: If I talk, everyone thinks I'm showing off; when I'm silent they think I'm ridiculous, rude if I answer, sly if I get a good idea, lazy if I'm tired, selfish if I eat a mouthful more than I should, stupid, cowardly, crafty, etc., etc.
Source: The Diary of a Young Girl
“Children are educated by what the grown-up is and not by his talk.”
“The moon is friend for the lonesome to talk to.”
“Someone who eats pancakes and jam can't be so awfully dangerous. You can talk to him.”
Source: Finn Family Moomintroll
“The reason I talk to myself is because I’m the only one whose answers I accept.”
Attributed to Plato in Confidence : How to Succeed at Being Yourself (1987) by Alan Loy McGinnis, this is probably a paraphrase of a statement which occurs in Letter of Advice to a Young Gentleman Leaving the University Concerning His Behaviour and Conversation in the World (1907) by Richard Lindgard: "Take heed of playing often or deep at Dice and Games of Chance, for that is more chargeable than the seven deadly sins; yet you may allow yourself a certain easie Sum to spend at Play, to gratifie Friends, and pass over the Winter Nights, and that will make you indifferent for the Event. If you would read a man’s Disposition, see him Game; you will then learn more of him in one hour, than in seven Years Conversation, and little Wagers will try him as soon as great Stakes, for then he is off his Guard."
Variants:
You can learn more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation.
Attributed to Plato in Food Is the Frosting-Company Is the Cake (2007) by Maggie Marshall
You learn more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation.
Attributed to Plato by former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, as quoted in "Aspiring philosopher Palin quotes 'Plato'" (9 July 2009) http://thinkprogress.org/2009/07/09/palin-plato/
Misattributed
He said ‘play my son’ but I was sweating. I stopped playing.
Khan used to do riyaz (practice) before the temple of Balaji as advised by his mamu (maternal uncle) who had also told him not talk to any body about anything that might happen. But when he told his mamu about his seeing Balaji, mamu was annoyed and slapped him.
Quote, Power Profiles
Letter to Leopold Mozart (Mannheim, 2 February 1778), from The letters of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, 1769-1791, translated, from the collection of Ludwig Nohl, by Lady [Grace] Wallace (Oxford University Press, 1865, digitized 2006) vol. I, # 91 (p. 164) http://books.google.com/books?vid=0SGwLiCNxu7qZ5ch&id=KEgBAAAAQAAJ&printsec=titlepage&dq=%22The+letters+of+Wolfgang+Amadeus+Mozart,+1769-1791%22&hl=en#PRA1-PA164,M1
Said to Moon Jae-in during the April 2018 inter-Korean summit according to a South Korean government spokesman, as quoted in Slate https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/04/kim-jong-un-says-north-korea-will-abandon-nuclear-program-if-u-s-pledges-not-to-invade.html
Appears in Barbet Schroeder (1974), General Idi Amin Dada: A Self Portrait.
My Twisted World (2014), Thoughts at 14
To Leon Goldensohn (21 May 1946)
The Nuremberg Interviews (2004)
"Ever Since New York", written by Harry Styles, Mitch Rowland, Jeff Bhasker, Ryan Nasci, Alex Salibian, Tyler Johnson
Lyrics, Harry Styles (2017)
“I don't like all the attention. I think it's better to let my work do the talking.”
Source: Digital Trends http://news.digitaltrends.com/featured_article58.html
On why he shaved his head in 1993 ** Interview with Details Magazine, December 1996 https://pitchfork.com/features/article/10081-chris-cornell-searching-for-solitude/,
Soundgarden Era
“The more you use it, the more it produces;
the more you talk of it, the less you understand.”
Source: Tao Te Ching, Ch. 5, as interpreted by Stephen Mitchell (1992)
Context: The Tao is like a bellows:
it is empty yet infinitely capable.
The more you use it, the more it produces;
the more you talk of it, the less you understand.
Anarchism or Socialism (1906)
Context: We are not the kind of people who, when the word "anarchism" is mentioned, turn away contemptuously and say with a supercilious wave of the hand: "Why waste time on that, it's not worth talking about!" We think that such cheap "criticism" is undignified and useless.
Nor are we the kind of people who console themselves with the thought that the Anarchists "have no masses behind them and, therefore, are not so dangerous." It is not who has a larger or smaller "mass" following today, but the essence of the doctrine that matters. If the "doctrine" of the Anarchists expresses the truth, then it goes without saying that it will certainly hew a path for itself and will rally the masses around itself. If, however, it is unsound and built up on a false foundation, it will not last long and will remain suspended in mid-air. But the unsoundness of anarchism must be proved.
Some people believe that Marxism and anarchism are based on the same principles and that the disagreements between them concern only tactics, so that, in the opinion of these people, no distinction whatsoever can be drawn between these two trends.
This is a great mistake.
We believe that the Anarchists are real enemies of Marxism. Accordingly, we also hold that a real struggle must be waged against real enemies.
"Hey, That's No Way To Say Goodbye" · Duet with Judy Collins on Soundstage (January 1976) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVJImYNGqwk
Songs of Leonard Cohen (1967)
Context: I loved you in the morning, our kisses deep and warm,
Your hair upon the pillow like a sleepy golden storm,
Yes many loved before us, I know that we are not new,
In city and in forest they smiled like me and you,
But let's not talk of love or chains and things we can't untie,
your eyes are soft with sorrow,
Hey, that's no way to say goodbye.
“Don’t talk too much, be focused on the goal and achieve it.”
“Listen to how everyone is talking about you. You have to use it as fuel for motivation.”
Time to 'get angry', teen climate activist says in Davos https://news.yahoo.com/time-angry-teen-climate-activist-says-davos-015904861.html, World Economic Forum, Davos (January 2019)...
2019, World Economic Forum (January 2019)
About reverse racism, as quoted in Ben Shapiro, a Provocative ‘Gladiator,’ Battles to Win Young Conservatives https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/23/us/ben-shapiro-conservative.html (November 23, 2017) by Sabrina Tavernise, The New York Times.
2017
to Michael Azerrad in an interview from 1992 or 1993, in Kurt Cobain: About a Son
Interviews (1989-1994), Video
"Queen: Live at Wembley" (1986), shortly before performing "Who Wants To Live Forever." http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GNJ1SQpxFI
“You smiled and talked to me of nothing and I felt that for this I had been waiting long.”
Source: Culture and Value (1980), p. 56e
Variant: If there's any message, it is ultimately that it's okay to be different; that it's good to be different, that we should question ourselves before we pass judgment on someone who looks different, behaves different, talks different, is a different color.
Variant: I talk to you as I talk to my own soul," he said, turning me to face him. He reached up and cupped my cheek, fingers light on my temple. "And Sassenach," he whispered, "Your face is my heart.
Source: Dragonfly in Amber
Variant: and it ought to make us feel ashamed when we talk like we know what we're talking about when we talk about love.
Source: What We Talk About When We Talk About Love
“There is a difference between a thing and talking about a thing.”
British Telecom advertisement (1993), part of which was used in Pink Floyd's Keep Talking (1994) and Talkin' Hawkin'<nowiki/> (2014)
Context: For millions of years, mankind lived just like the animals. Then something happened which unleashed the power of our imagination. We learned to talk and we learned to listen. Speech has allowed the communication of ideas, enabling human beings to work together to build the impossible. Mankind's greatest achievements have come about by talking, and its greatest failures by not talking. It doesn't have to be like this. Our greatest hopes could become reality in the future. With the technology at our disposal, the possibilities are unbounded. All we need to do is make sure we keep talking.
“It was always Marx, Lenin, and revolution - real girl's talk.”
Source: I Put a Spell on You: The Autobiography of Nina Simone
Source: On Authority, see https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1872/10/authority.htm
“You do realize as you grow older that almost nobody knows what they are talking about.”
Alex Jones: The "Justin Biebler" Rant https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDMB0KyhPN8, 21 February 2011.
2011
Interview with CONMEBOL, 2015 http://www.conmebol.com/en/04132015-2140/messi-being-father-has-helped-me-grow-and-think-life-there-are-other-things-besides
http://www.popmonk.com/actors/leonardo-dicaprio/quotes-leonardo-dicaprio.htm
“Ginger: Oh, jeez. Well, uh… maybe you should talk to someone.Cynthia: I thought I was.”
#452, "Absolute Value" (2004), collected in Invasion of the DTWOF (2005).
Dykes to Watch Out For
1960s, Portrait of a Genius As a Young Chess Master (1961)
If Prison Walls Could Speak (1972)
“Anyone who wishes to stay in Bangladesh will have to talk to Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.”
Shouting out aloud during proceedings of the Agartala conspiracy trial. It was in response to a journalist, to whom he was whispering, who told him that it was inappropriate to talk under the watch of undercover officers. http://www.thedailystar.net/magazine/2008/08/04/chintito.htm
Quote, Other
“Big money for the grill, so I'm never cheap talking.”
Weezy's Ambitionz
Official Mix tapes, Dedication 2 (2006)
Inspirational Quotes to lighten our load, http://neuralorganizationtherapy.com/Inspirational_Quotes.html, Neural Organization Therapy
Source: Down and out in Paris and London (1933), Ch. 3
Context: For, when you are approaching poverty, you make one discovery which outweighs some of the others. You discover boredom and mean complications and the beginnings of hunger, but you also discover the great redeeming feature of poverty: the fact that it annihilates the future. Within certain limits, it is actually true that the less money you have, the less you worry. When you have a hundred francs in the world you are liable to the most craven panics. When you have only three francs you are quite indifferent; for three francs will feed you till tomorrow, and you cannot think further than that. You are bored, but you are not afraid. You think vaguely, 'I shall be starving in a day or two--shocking, isn't it?' And then the mind wanders to other topics. A bread and margarine diet does, to some extent, provide its own anodyne. And there is another feeling that is a great consolation in poverty. I believe everyone who has been hard up has experienced it. It is a feeling of relief, almost of pleasure, at knowing yourself at last genuinely down and out. You have talked so often of going to the dogs--and well, here are the dogs, and you have reached them, and you can stand it. It takes off a lot of anxiety.
1983
Source: https://www.facebook.com/LifeWithoutACentre/posts/1523252961105640
As quoted in Sojourner Truth : A Self-made Woman (1974) by Victoria Ortiz
Variant: Sisters, I ain't clear what you be after. If women want any rights more than they's got, why don't they just take them, and not be talking about it?
“I prefer drawing to talking. Drawing is faster, and leaves less room for lies.”
“That’s love: Two lonely persons keep each other safe and touch each other and talk to each other.”
"Ben Watson interviews Frank Zappa", in MOJO magazine (October 1993).
Variant: Rock journalism is people who can't write, interviewing people who can't talk, in order to provide articles for people who can't read
Source: The Real Frank Zappa Book
Variant: If there is anything more annoying in the world than having people talk about you, it is certainly having no one talk about you.
Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray
Source: Alanna: The First Adventure
Source: Down and Out in Paris and London
“I talk to God but the sky is empty.”
Draft of letter to Richard Sassoon (1950-02-19)
The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath (2000)
Variant: I talk to God, but the sky is empty.
“There was nothing to talk about anymore. The only thing to do was go.”
Source: On the Road
