• Conversation would be vastly improved by the constant use of four simple words: I do not know.

  

  André Maurois

  WriterFrench1885 · 19th century

  3.2 · 59 votes · 19 reads

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• Debate is masculine, conversation is feminine.

  

  Amos Bronson Alcott

  EducatorAmerican1799 · 18th century

  4.2 · 28 votes · 146 reads

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• I never desire to converse with a man who has written more than he has read.

  

  Samuel Johnson

  AuthorBritish1709 · 18th century

  4.1 · 35 votes · 156 reads

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• In conversation the game is, to say something new with old words. And you shall observe a man of the people picking his way along, step by step, using every time an old boulder, yet never setting his foot on an old place.

  

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  PoetAmerican1803 · 19th century

  4.8 · 12 votes · 9 reads

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• In conversation, humor is worth more than wit and easiness more than knowledge.

  

  George Herbert

  PoetBritish1593 · 16th century

  4.3 · 52 votes · 88 reads

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• In my opinion, the most fruitful and natural play of the mind is in conversation. I find it sweeter than any other action in life; and if I were forced to choose, I think I would rather lose my sight than my hearing and voice. The study of books is a drow

  M

  Montaigne

  PhilosopherFrench1533 · 16th century

  4.0 · 18 votes · 156 reads

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• Never hold anyone by the button or the hand in order to be heard out; for if people are unwilling to hear you, you had better hold your tongue than them.

  

  Lord Chesterfield

  PoliticianBritish1694 · 17th century

  3.7 · 20 votes · 152 reads

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• One of the very best rules of conversation is to never, say anything which any of the company wish had been left unsaid.

  

  Jonathan Swift

  WriterIrish1667 · 17th century

  3.4 · 59 votes · 35 reads

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• Repartee is perfect when it effects its purpose with a double edge. It is the highest order of wit, as it indicates the coolest yet quickest exercise of genius, at a moment when the passions are roused.

  

  Charles Caleb Colton

  AuthorBritish1780 · 18th century

  3.9 · 62 votes · 44 reads

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• Reply to wit with gravity, and to gravity with wit.

  

  Charles Caleb Colton

  AuthorBritish1780 · 18th century

  4.3 · 53 votes · 148 reads

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• She has lost the art of conversation, but not, unfortunately, the power of speech.

  

  George Bernard Shaw

  WriterIrish1856 · 19th century

  4.5 · 59 votes · 105 reads

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• Talk to every woman as if you loved her, and to every man as if he bored you, and at the end of your first season you will have the reputation of possessing the most perfect social tact.

  

  Oscar Wilde

  PoetIrish1854 · 19th century

  4.1 · 16 votes · 145 reads

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• The great gift of conversation lies less in displaying it ourselves than in drawing it out of others. He who leaves your company pleased with himself and his own cleverness is perfectly well pleased with you.

  

  Jean de la Bruyère

  French1645 · 17th century

  3.6 · 60 votes · 52 reads

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• The great secret of succeeding in conversation is to admire little, to hear much; always to distrust our own reason, and sometimes that of our friends; never to pretend to wit, but to make that of others appear as much as possibly we can; to hearken to wh

  

  Benjamin Franklin

  PoliticianAmerican1706 · 18th century

  4.6 · 15 votes · 107 reads

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• The happiest conversation is that of which nothing is distinctly remembered but a general effect of pleasing impression.

  

  Samuel Johnson

  AuthorBritish1709 · 18th century

  4.8 · 60 votes · 133 reads

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• The primary use of conversation is to satisfy the impulse to talk.

  

  George Santayana

  PoetSpanish- American1863 · 19th century

  4.4 · 10 votes · 27 reads

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• The true spirit of conversation consists in building on another man's observation, not overturning it.

  E

  Edward G. Bulwer-Lytton

  PoliticianBritish1803 · 19th century

  3.0 · 39 votes · 138 reads

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• There is no conversation more boring than the one where everybody agrees.

  M

  Montaigne

  PhilosopherFrench1533 · 16th century

  3.0 · 25 votes · 131 reads

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• Things said for conversation are chalk eggs. Don't say things. What you are stands over you the while, and thunders so that I cannot hear what you say to the contrary.

  

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  PoetAmerican1803 · 19th century

  4.8 · 61 votes · 165 reads

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• We do not talk - we bludgeon one another with facts and theories gleaned from cursory readings of newspapers, magazines and digests.

  

  Henry Miller

  AuthorAmerican1891 · 19th century

  4.1 · 39 votes · 200 reads

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• We often forgive those who bore us, but we cannot forgive those whom we bore.

  

  François de La Rochefoucauld

  WriterFrench1613 · 17th century

  4.3 · 22 votes · 98 reads

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• With thee conversing I forget all time.

  

  John Milton

  PoetEnglish1608 · 17th century

  4.1 · 28 votes · 67 reads

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