Elegance of language may not be in the power of all of us; but simplicity and straight forwardness are. Write much as you would speak; speak as you think. If with your inferior, speak no coarser than usual; if with your superiors, no finer. Be what you say; and, within the rules of prudence, say what you are. -- AlfordI have often regretted my speech, never my silence. -- AnonymousThe only weapon that becomes sharper with constant use is the tongue. -- AnonymousThere's nothing wrong with having nothing to say -- unless you insist on saying it. -- AnonymousThe best time to hold your tongue is the time you feel you must say something or bust. -- Josh BillingsThe true spirit of conversation consists in building on another man's observation, not overturning it. -- Edward Bulwer-LyttonI have noticed that nothing I have never said ever did me any harm. -- Calvin CoolidgeHonest disagreement is often a good sign of progress. -- GandhiSilence is argument carried out by other means. -- Ernesto "Che" GuevaraWhen people talk, listen completely. Most people never listen. -- Ernest HemingwayThe only way to entertain some folks is to listen to them. -- Kin HubbardSilence is as full of potential wisdom and wit as the unhewn marble of a great sculpture. -- Aldous HuxleyValue your words. Each one may be the last. -- Stanislaw J. LecI feel that if a person has problems communicating the very least he can do is to shut up. -- Tom LehrerBetter to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt. -- Abraham LincolnTact is the ability to describe others as they see themselves. -- Abraham LincolnGood communication is as stimulating as black coffee, and just as hard to sleep after. -- Anne Morrow LindberghNo one really listens to anyone else, and if you try it for a while you'll see why. -- Mignon McLaughlinHe who knows only his own side of the case, knows little of that. -- John Stuart MillWe can never be sure that the opinion we are endeavoring to stifle is a false opinion; and if we were sure, stifling it would be an evil still. -- John Stuart MillKind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless. -- Mother TeresaIt was the greatest of the imperfect ventriloquist acts: when his lips moved, her body sang. -- Tom RobbinsThe trouble with her is that she lacks the power of conversation but not the power of speech. -- George Bernard ShawHe had occasional flashes of silence that made his conversation perfectly delightful. -- Sydney Smith, referring to MacaulayIf other people are going to talk, conversation becomes impossible. -- James McNeill WhistlerConversation, fastidious Goddess, loves blood better than brick, and feasts most subtly on the human will. -- Virginia Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway