Quotes about talking
page 47

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

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

“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

Money, Hell, Understanding, Country

“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

People, Thinking

“I love sci-fi, especially when it comes to dialogue with fans; they're so involved with the series. It's a great experience to be able to talk with the fans of the show. As an actor, you know much more about your character, even more so sometimes than gets shown on the show. Sci-fi fans really have a commitment to the characters even as much as the actors do. There's a synergy between making television and who gets to watch it.”

Brooke Nevin (1982) Canadian actress

'Breakout Kings' Actor Brooke Nevin Grows Up https://www.backstage.com/magazine/article/breakout-kings-actor-brooke-nevin-grows-56115/ (June 1, 2011)

Love, Making love

“I think we should have international, legal community studies of cybersecurity and necessary laws, and countries should be encouraged to adopt these laws through the United Nations just like they adopt laws to prevent the abuse of children and protect human rights.
There needs to be a multidimensional, multilayered and multi-azimuth defense. That is, defense has to look in all directions. When you're talking about cybersecurity, you're talking about being able to protect your points. It's not directed against a country, but to secure your points of access or specific end points or network access. It's not as though you're arming yourself against a specific threat — you're simply undertaking all aspects of protection.”

Wesley Clark (1944) American general and former Democratic Party presidential candidate

"Civilization's High Stakes Cyber-Struggle: Q&A With Gen. Wesley Clark (ret.)" by Richard Adhikari, TechNewsWorld (2 December 2009) https://www.technewsworld.com/story/68787.html

Children, Law, Communication, Thinking

“You talk of Paine with more respect than he deserves: He is utterly incapable of comprehending his subject. He has not even a moderate portion of learning of any kind. He has learnd the instrumental part of literature, a style, and a method of disposing his ideas, without having ever made a previous preparation of Study or thinking—for the use of it. ... [Paine] possesses nothing more than what a man whose audacity makes him careless of logical consequences, and his total want of honour and morality makes indifferent as to political consequences, may very easily write. They indeed who seriously write upon a principle of levelling ought to be answerd by the Magistrate—and not by the Speculatist.”

Edmund Burke (1729–1797) Anglo-Irish statesman

Letter to William Cusac Smith (22 July 1791), quoted in Alfred Cobban and Robert A. Smith (eds.), The Correspondence of Edmund Burke, Volume VI: July 1789–December 1791 (1967), pp. 303-304
1790s

Pain, Making love, Literature, Idea

“Oh it’s very beautiful to have a very rich heritage from my Indian ancestors. My mother is Mixtec [a native tribe of Oaxaca], and my father was Scottish American. Growing up with those cultures has been enriching. Though, at first very difficult because I was rejected by one culture — in the Mexican Nation there is a lot of discrimination towards the Indian groups. So I struggled with that and with being discriminated as a Mexican. But I think music has been able to erase those boundaries. I think it’s easier to stop talking about those borders, and talk more about the music — to make music so that those borders are erased in a poetic way.”

Lila Downs (1968) Mexican American singer-songwriter

On her racial heritage in “Q&A: Lila Downs, A Sin and A Miracle” https://remezcla.com/music/lila-downs-sin-miracle-pecados-milagros-interview/ in Remezcla (c. 2011) Heritage and indigenous peoples

Making love, Beauty, Music, Way

“By a miracle the 19th amendment has been ratified, we women now have a weapon of defense ... it will be a shame to us if we do not use it … we shall give our enemies a stick with which to break our head, Hold meetings, every time you meet a woman talk to her about going to the polls and vote!”

Mary Church Terrell (1863–1954) African Americans' rights activist

Source: p.310

Women, Time

“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

People, Making love, Time

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.

People, Thinking

“I'm your narrator. It's my task to say
Just where and how things happen in our play,
Set the bare stage with words instead of props
And keep on talking till the curtain drops. …
It's an old task — old as the human heart,
Old as those bygone players and their art
Who, in old days when faith was nearer earth,
Played out the mystery of Jesus' birth
In hall or village green or market square
For all who chose to come and see them there,
And, if they knew that King Herod, in his crown,
Was really Wat, the cobbler of the town,
And Tom, the fool, played Abraham the Wise,
They did not care. They saw with other eyes.
The story was their own — not far away,
As real as if it happened yesterday,
Full of all awe and wonder yet so near,
A marvelous thing that could have happened here
In their own town — a star that could have blazed
On their own shepherds, leaving them amazed,
Frightened and questioning and following still
To the bare stable — and the miracle.”

Stephen Vincent Benét (1898–1943) poet, short story writer, novelist

Narrator
Source: A Child is Born (1942)

Faith, Fools, Art, Star

“Opinion has been right to fasten upon sovereignty as the central issue. Either British entry is a declaration of intent to surrender this country's sovereignty, stage by stage, in all that matters as a nation, and makes a nation, or else it is an empty gesture, disgraceful in its hollowness alike to those who proffer and to whose who accept it. The superior people laugh at those who talk about losing our Queen and our Monarchy. ... The Queen is the Queen in Parliament, as truly today as when her predecessor, Tudor Henry, observed that ‘we are nowhere so high in our estate royal as in this Our High Court of Parliament’. The question which the people of this country will have proposed to them is: will you, or will you not, continue to be governed by the Queen in Parliament? It is no less than that, and they have understood it.”

Enoch Powell (1912–1998) British politician

Source: Speech in Doncaster (19 June 1971), quoted in The Common Market: Renegotiate or Come Out (1973), p. 119

People, Making love, Question, Country

“It was a great chance to show viewers who I really am. I’m a really bubbly, talkative person who loves to make fun of others and keep everyone laughing. I want the audiences to keep looking out for “that attractive girl” who takes on all the tasks and keeps entertaining them.”

Nikki Tamboli (1996) Indian Actress

Bigg Boss 14: Nikki Tamboli wants to work with Vijay Sethupathi after reality show

Love, Making love, Girl, Chance

“I am talking about the accumulated evidence of the last 5 years that our present tax system, developed as it was, in good part, during World War II to restrain growth, exerts too heavy a drag on growth in peace time; that it siphons out of the private economy too large a share of personal and business purchasing power; that it reduces the financial incentives for personal effort, investment, and risk-taking. In short, to increase demand and lift the economy, the Federal Government's most useful role is not to rush into a program of excessive increases in public expenditures, but to expand the incentives and opportunities for private expenditures. [...] While rising demand will expand imports, new investment in more efficient productive facilities will aid exports and a new economic climate could both draw capital from abroad and keep capital here at home.”

John F. Kennedy (1917–1963) 35th president of the United States of America

Source: 1962, Address and Question and Answer Period at the Economic Club of New York

War, World, Peace, Home

“Think of life as being this book, an unfinished book for sure. We're just seeing the last few pages of each chapter. If you look out on the eight million species that we share this planet with, think of them all being four billion years of evolution. They're all the product of that. Think of us all as young leaves on this ancient and gigantic tree of life, all of us connected by invisible branches not just to each other, but to our extinct relatives and our evolutionary ancestors. As a biologist, I'm still trying to learn, with others, how everyone's related to each other, who is related to whom. Perhaps it's better still to think of us as a little fish out of water. Yes, one that learned to walk and talk, but one that still has a lot of learning to do about who we are and where we came from.”

Prosanta Chakrabarty (1978) American ichthyologist

Source: Four billion years of evolution in six minutes https://www.ted.com/talks/prosanta_chakrabarty_four_billion_years_of_evolution_in_six_minutes (April 2018)

Life, Books, Thinking, Fish

“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.”

Aldous Huxley book Brave New World

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

Life, War, Happiness, People

“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.

Love, Making love

“Look at the solar system, and look at the Earth. On Earth, there are many intelligent species, but only one has achieved technology. Right here in the journey of our own solar system, there is a very, very powerful message that says here's how we should look for alien life, small and big. So yeah, microbes are talking and we are listening, and they are taking us, one planet at a time and one moon at a time, towards their big brothers out there. And they are telling us about diversity, they are telling us about abundance of life, and they are telling us how this life has survived thus far to reach civilization, intelligence, technology and, indeed, philosophy.”

Nathalie Cabrol (1963) French American astrobiologist

Source: How Mars might hold the secret to the origin of life https://www.ted.com/talks/nathalie_cabrol_how_mars_might_hold_the_secret_to_the_origin_of_life (March 2015)

Life, Intelligence, Time

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

Chetan Bhagat book The 3 Mistakes of My Life

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

Life, People

“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

God, Forgiveness, Wine, Heart

“The factory doesn't like to hear too much talk about things it doesn't believe in. Contrary to what you may have heard, the factory has never found a single problem caused by ghosts. So if you meet any ectoplasmic spirits up there in the high crane, I suggest you be polite and they'll probably be polite right back. You're up there alone for fourteen hours a day, and you might find it's nice to have someone to talk to.”

Megan Whalen Turner (1965) American children's writer

The Foreman
Instead of Three Wishes, Factory

Problem

“I discovered the existence of an underground... This underground only occasionally intermingles in part with the worlds of business, science, politics, academia, and the so-called arts... it definitely...infiltrates all of Western civilization.... one thing is usually certain: members of this underground who are respected in their communities don't talk about the interest or beliefs that qualify them for membership unless they know you too are in the club. They have learned from experience that to be outspoken brings censure —from their ministers, customers, employers, or even friends... They are found in all walks of life: scientists, psychiatrists, physicians, housewives, college students, businessmen, teenagers, and at least a few ministers in formal religions... They gather in small groups, quietly and often semi-secretly... usually discuss affairs of the underground only with other members... All are to some degree emotionally and intellectually dedicated to a cause. Finally, the underground has its own literature, language, technology, and to some extent demigods.”

Robert Monroe (1915–1995) American founder of The Monroe Institute

Journeys Out of the Body (1971), Chapter 2. Search and Research

Life, World, Religion, Art

“In the United States, such collusion with the destroyers of human life on Planet Earth is written all over their actions. It’s beyond evident in the appointment of former oil and gas lobbyists and fellow travelers to positions of power... We are, of course, talking about nothing short of the ultimate crime, but on any given day of our lives, you’d hardly notice that it was underway. Even for an old man like me, it’s a terrifying thing to watch humanity make a decision, however inchoate, to essentially commit suicide. In effect, there is now a suicide watch on Planet Earth. Let’s hope the kids can make a difference.”

Tom Engelhardt (1944) American writer

Suicide Watch on Planet Earth, CounterPunch, https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/04/26/suicide-watch-on-planet-earth/(26 April 2019)

Life, Making love, Hope, Travel

“Christians talk about the horror of sin, but they have overlooked something. They keep talking as if everyone were a great sinner, when the truth is that nowadays one is hardly up to it. There is very little sin in the depths of the malaise. The highest moment of a malaisian's life can be the moment when he manages to sin like a proper human”

Walker Percy book The Moviegoer

Look at us, Binx — my vagabond friends as good as cried out to me — we're sinning! We're succeeding! We're human after all!
The Moviegoer (1961)

Life, Truth

“Here life is, moves; faintly. A wrist. The faint throb of blood, precise, miraculous... And they talk of dying! The blood delicately descending and ascending: making an arm. Being an arm. The warm flesh, the dim slender flesh filled with life, slenderer than a miracle, frailer... These are the shoulders through which fell the world. The dangerous shoulders of Eve, in god's entire garden newly strolling.”

E.E. Cummings Him

Him (1927)

Life, God, World, Making love

“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

Thinking

“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

“When we think about how we address problems in this country, we often start from a place of trickle-down justice. So using white folks as the control we say, well, if we make things better for white folks then everybody else is going to get free. But actually it doesn't work that way.... When we talk about the wage gap, we often say women make 78 cents to every dollar that a man makes. You all have heard that before. But those are the statistics for white women and white men. The reality is that black women make something like 64 cents to every 78 cents that white women make. When we talk about Latinas, it goes down to about 58 cents. If we were to talk about indigenous women, if we were to talk about trans women, it would even go further down. So again, if you deal with those who are the most impacted, everybody has an opportunity to benefit from that, rather than dealing with the folks who are not as impacted, and expecting it to trickle down.”

Alicia Garza (1981) Co-founder of the Black Lives Matter International movement

An Interview with the Founders of Black Lives Matter, Ted Talks, https://www.ted.com/talks/alicia_garza_patrisse_cullors_and_opal_tometi_an_interview_with_the_founders_of_black_lives_matter?language=en (October 2016)

Women, Men, Making love, Justice

“[W]e live... in the pockets of reducibility. ...I should have realized [that] very many years ago, but didn't... [I]t could very well be that everything about the world is computationally irreducible and completely unpredictable, but... in our experience of the world there is at least some amount of prediction we can make. ...[T]hat's because we have ...chosen a slice of ...how to think about the universe, in which we can... sample a certain amount of computational reducibility, and that's... where we exist. ...It may not be the whole story about how the universe is, but it is that part of the universe that we care about and ...operate in. ...In science, that's been ...a very special case ...science has chosen to talk a lot about places where there is this computational reducibility... The motion of the planets can be ...predicted. The... weather is much harder to predict. ...[S]cience has tended to concentrate itself on places where its methods have allowed successful prediction.”

Stephen Wolfram (1959) British-American computer scientist, mathematician, physicist, writer and businessman

Stephen Wolfram: Fundamental Theory of Physics, Life, and the Universe (Sep 15, 2020)

World, Making love, Thinking, Universe

“Guiltily people will always think that you are talking bad about them, so do not talk to yourself in the mirror.”

Kadda Sheekoff (1993) Haitian rapper, singer, songwriter, record producer, actor, and entrepreneur

Bad luck, People, Thinking

“It's true, that's how your mind works. I can tell you that honestly, because I own an agency and I talk to girls all day and all night about what they want to do, and they are like, "I want to go into mainstream" and I tell them, "You are at the wrong agency; you are not going to get into mainstream through porn -- it's just not how it works." I think girls like Jenna Jameson and I have crossed over and made it, but mainstream is still kind of shaky once you've been in adult. After doing those magazines I started doing movies and it wasn't a big leap, like you said."”

Tera Patrick (1976) American pornographic actress

do not play a gain what I am doing. On her decision to move from Penthouse to film Interview with Roger T. Pipe, July 2000 http://www.rogreviews.com/interviews/tera_patrick.asp

Girl, Thinking, Night

“I always knew America was the place for me. In school, when the teacher would talk about America, I would daydream about coming here. I would sit for hours watching American movies. Everything about America seemed so big to me so open, so possible.”

Arnold Schwarzenegger (1947) actor, businessman and politician of Austrian-American heritage

“We simply don’t do optimism or pessimism, we do logistics. That is our calling and duty, neither to stir up false hope nor dash incipient possibility. To work with what we have to achieve what we can, neither over nor understating it. So stating it straight, I don’t know what the outcome of the election will be with the single exception I guess that we will not be talking of a National Government after it. There is still the enormous extent to which the Irish people “trust” the devil they know, and there are as yet insurmountable difficulties for a new party to make revolutionary progress through a corrupted structure.”

Justin Barrett (1971) Irish activist

New Year Message 2020 https://nationalparty.ie/new-year-message-2020/ (January 1, 2020)

People, Making love, Hope, Optimism

“I feel the world is the way it is because we don’t talk about ourselves ever. We don’t talk about how we feel, we don’t talk about how we experience things. And not knowing yourself is when you project your insecurities and your fears and your bullshit onto other people. And so that just kind of creates a whole collective where nobody’s aware of themselves, and if you don’t have self-awareness then how can we have collective awareness?”

Lauren Jauregui (1996) Cuban-American singer and songwriter

Fifth Harmony Was Just The Beginning For Lauren Jauregui, Nylon Magazine, September 5, 2018 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtrtUi4Vmnw,

People, World, Fear, Way

“Is fashion important? Is it important to talk about luxury? Does it really matter if you’re going to wear a red dress or not? Finally, I thought, Because of that woman, it is important. You make people dream. You make people think. You have to give them stories. You have to introduce fantasy. Fashion is how we bring them into the world today. That is my job.”

Alber Elbaz (1961–2021) Israeli fashion designer

Source: Interview, 2009, https://www.interviewmagazine.com/fashion/alber-elbaz

People, World, Making love, Dreams

“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)

Democracy, Time

“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

Learning, Science

“Sir, there were other days, when England was the hope of freedom. Wherever in the world a high aspiration was entertained, or a noble blow was struck, it was to England that the eyes of the oppressed were always turned—to this favourite, this darling home of so much privilege and so much happiness, where the people that had built up a noble edifice for themselves would, it was well known, be ready to do what in them lay to secure the benefit of the same inestimable boon for others. You talk to me of the established tradition and policy in regard to Turkey. I appeal to an established tradition, older, wider, nobler far—a tradition not which disregards British interests, but which teaches you to seek the promotion of those interests in obeying the dictates of honour and of justice.”

William Ewart Gladstone (1809–1898) British Liberal politician and prime minister of the United Kingdom

Speech http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1877/may/07/postponement-of-orders-of-the-day#column_437 in the House of Commons (7 May 1877) 1870s

Happiness, People, World, Justice

“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)

People

“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)

God

“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)

People, Confidence, Self-confidence

“The whole underside of our society has always been violence and still is. Churches, laws--everybody seems to think that man is a noble savage. But he's only an animal. A meat-eating, talking animal. Recognize it. He also has grace and love and beauty. But don't say to me we're not violent.”

Sam Peckinpah (1925–1984) American film director and screenwriter

Playboy, August 1972

Love, Making love, Law, Beauty

“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

People, Way, Understanding, Freedom

“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)

Making love, Decision

“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

Life, Marriage, Family, Problem

“I can understand that people get overwhelmed very quickly when you start to talk about an enormous issue like climate change. But I suggest they just choose one change and implement that in their lives, such as deciding not to eat bluefin tuna or shrimp anymore because it’s unsustainable. Then when that becomes simply part of your life, chose something else to implement. Make informed choices and make them part of your everyday life and don’t assume others are doing it for you.”

Céline Cousteau (1972) French-American explorer, filmmaker, and diver

300 Seconds with Céline S. Cousteau NOW talks to the filmmaker and explorer https://www.itmustbenow.com/feature/movers-mavericks/5-minutes-celine-s-cousteau/ (December 2018)

Life, People, Making love, Understanding

“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

“To listen well is as powerful a means of communication and influence as to talk well.”

John Marshall (1755–1835) fourth Chief Justice of the United States

Communication, Powerful

“If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart.”

Nelson Mandela (1918–2013) President of South Africa, anti-apartheid activist

Understanding, Heart, Wise, For Men

“Since human beings are storytelling beings, we are bound to rebel against the drift to storylessness. But there is no guarantee that the rebellions will take salutary form. Some, in their hunger for story, will be drawn to the vacant, vicarious fare of confessional talk shows, celebrity scandals, and sensational trials. Others will seek refuge in fundamentalism. The hope of our time rests instead with those who can summon the conviction and restraint to make sense of our condition and repair the civic life on which democracy depends.”

Michael J. Sandel (1953) American political philosopher

Conclusion: In Search of a Public Philosophy
Democracy's Discontent (1996)

Life, Hunger, Hope, Democracy

“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

War

“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

Women, World, Communication, Problem

“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

Time

“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)

God

“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)

Problem

“Bizarrely, as immigration began to change Europe at its economic and cultural core, the political vocabulary remained the same as when immigration had been a fringe phenomenon. People kept talking about restaurants.”

Christopher Caldwell (1962) American political writer

Reflections on the Revolution in Europe (2009)

People, Change

“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

Drink, Business, Sea

“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

“Even if you are thousand people in this hall, I am talking to you. When I say you, I mean Y O U. There is a thread running with each of you; so don’t ever apply what I am saying to others; you will simply miss the whole thing yourself.”

Nithyananda (1978) Indian guru

Guaranteed Solutions

People

“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.”

Désinord Jean (1967)

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)

Way, Country

“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

Love, Personality

“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)

Money, People, Thinking

“What is true need not be talked about, debated, or argued, it is just so.
- Paravinthan Kumaralagan”

RoseHouse

“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

Love, People

“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)

Peace, History, Change, Future

“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)

Death, People

“A long time ago humans talked of terraforming Mars and Venus, but we never did it. Just too busy blowing ourselves up, I guess, ever to get round to it.”

Charles Sheffield book Between the Strokes of Night

Source: Between the Strokes of Night (1985), Chapter 28 (p. 322)

Business, Time

“If you want understand how a woman loves you just have to listen her words backwards. If you want to understand how a man loves, when he talks about love you must close your ears.”

Menotti Lerro (1980) Italian poet

Donna Giovanna, Act I, scene ii.
Theater Quotes

Love, Understanding

“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.”

Steve Stewart-Williams (1971)

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

Justice

“Being rich is associated with being intelligent in our society. Thus, all the billionaires and millionaires make sense every time they talk.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

Intelligence, Sense, Time

“God created everything, but humans are still ashamed to talk about themselves in the public domain.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

God

“If Eve was really created after Adam, then there is the beginning of the inequality that we keep talking about in our generation.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

“It's impossible to become an inventor or a genius without self-talk. You just need to control it according to your needs. Explore your imagination.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

Imagination

“Many people may talk, but only few can practice whatever they have said.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

People

“There is no inspiration without being armed with the ability of self-talk.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

“Women are great at talking and expressing their emotions, while men are great at reasoning and writing down their thoughts.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

Women, Men

“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

“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)

Peace, Art, Thinking

“I have never in my life met a man like him for noble simplicity, and boundless truthfulness. I understood from the way he talked that anyone who chose could deceive him, and that he would forgive anyone afterwards who had deceived him, and that was why I grew to love him.”

Fyodor Dostoyevsky book The Idiot

General, The Idiot (1868–9)

Love, Life, Truth, Way

“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

People, Freedom

“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)

History, Reality

“... 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)

“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)

People

“When I talk about pictures in my mind I am talking, quite specifically, about images that shimmer around the edges.”

Joan Didion (1934) American writer

"Why I Write" (1975)

“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)

“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)

People

“I really am a good listener because you never can tell when you will pick up something useful—and all in the world any woman has to do to be considered “charming” by men is to listen while they talk.”

Robert A. Heinlein book Podkayne of Mars

Source: Podkayne of Mars (1963), Chapter 6 (p. 60)

Men, World

“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)

“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.

World

“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)

“Now first of all I would like to talk about the question of different ideologies and social systems. We have to admit that among our Asian and African countries, we do have different ideologies and different social systems. But this does not prevent us from seeking common ground and being united.”

Zhou Enlai (1898–1976) 1st Premier of the People's Republic of China

Supplementary Speech at the Plenary Session of the Asian African-Conference (19 April 1955)

Question, Country

“[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/

People, Thinking

“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

Learning

“Since it is September 11th we’re talking about, perhaps it’s in the fitness of things that we remember what that date means, not only to those who lost their loved ones in America last year, but to those in other parts of the world to whom that date has long held significance.”

Arundhati Roy (1961) Indian novelist, essayist

Source: Articles, Come September (29 Sep 2002)

Love, World, Parting

“Indian intellectuals today feel radical when they condemn fundamentalism, but not many people are talking about the links between privatization, globalization, and fundamentalism. Globalization suits the Indian elite to a T. Fundamentalism doesn't.”

Arundhati Roy (1961) Indian novelist, essayist

Source: Articles, Interview with Arundhati Roy, by David Barsamian (July 16, 2007)

People, Feeling

“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

People

“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/

Tree

“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)

Peace

Quotes about talking page 47

Quotes about talking
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