Discourse

"On est aisément dupé par ce qu'on aime."

"He seemed For dignity compos'd and high exploit: But all was false and hollow."

"Where the lion's skin falls short it must be eked out with the fox's."

"It is vain to find fault with those arts of deceiving, wherein men find pleasure to be deceived."

"You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all the time."

"On pout être plus fin qu'un autre, mais non pas plus fin que tous les autres."

"But when the fox hath once got in his nose, He'll soon find means to make the body follow."

"Le bruit est pour le fat, la plainte pour le sot; L'honnête homme trompé s'éloigne et ne dit mot."

"Car c'est double plaisir de tromper le trompeur."

"On ne trompe point en bien; la fourberie ajoute la malice au mensonge."

"Vous le croyez votre dupe: s'il feint de l'être, qui est plus dupe, de lui ou de vous?"

"Hateful to me as are the gates of hell, Is he who, hiding one thing in his heart, Utters another."

"The angel answer'd, "Nay, sad soul; go higher! To be deceived in your true heart's desire Was bitterer than a thousand years of fire!""

"Which I wish to remark— And my language is plain,— That for ways that are dark And for tricks that are vain, The heathen Chinee is peculiar."

"One specialist ... may be of the greatest use in conversation. A set of specialists when they get together are either unintelligible to the average mind or exceedingly tedious."

"In conversation avoid the extremes of forwardness and reserve."

"Discourse, the sweeter banquet of the mind."

"Rarus sermo illis et magna libido tacendi."

"We took sweet counsel together."

"Talis hominibus est oratio qualis vita."

"Sermo animi est imago; qualis vir, talis et oratio est."

"Ita fabulantur ut qui sciant Dominum audire."

"There is, however, nothing wanting to the idleness of a philosopher but a better name, and that meditation, conversation, and reading should be called “work.”"

"L’esprit de la conversation consiste bien moins à en montrer beaucoup qu’à en faire trouver aux autres: celui qui sort de votre entretien content de soi et de son esprit, l’est de vous parfaitement. Les hommes n’aiment point à vous admirer, ils veulent plaire; ils cherchent moins à être instruits, et même réjouis, qu’à être goûtés et applaudis; et le plaisir le plus délicat est de faire celui d’autrui."

"A young man before he leaves the shelter of his father's house, and the guard of a tutor, should be fortify'd with resolution, and made acquainted with men, to secure his virtues, lest he should be led into some ruinous course, or fatal precipice, before he is sufficiently acquainted with the dangers of conversation, and his steadiness enough not to yield to every temptation."

"With thee conversing I forget all time: All seasons and their change, all please alike."

"On se forme l’esprit et le sentiment par les conversations. On se gâte l’esprit et le sentiment par les conversations. Ainsi les bonnes ou les mauvaises le forment ou le gâtent. Il importe donc de tout de les savoir choisir pour se le former et ne le point gâter; et on ne peut faire ce choix, si on ne l’a déjà formé et point gâté. Ainsi cela fait un cercle, d’où sont bienheureux ceux qui sortent."

"Method is not less requisite in ordinary conversation than in writing, provided a man would talk to make himself understood."

"With good and gentle humour'd hearts I choose to chat where e'er I come; Whate'er the subject be that starts; But if I get among the glum, I hold my tongue to tell the troth, And keep my breath to cool my broth."

"But conversation, choose what theme we may, And chiefly when religion leads the way, Should flow, like waters after summer show'rs, Not as if raised by mere mechanic powers."

"With thee conversing, I forget the way."

"I never, with important air, In conversation overbear. * * * * My tongue within my lips I rein; For who talks much must talk in vain."

"They would talk of nothing but high life and high-lived company, with other fashionable topics, such as pictures, taste, Shakespeare, and the musical glasses."

"Tom Birch is as brisk as a bee in conversation; but no sooner does he take a pen in his hand, than it becomes a torpedo to him, and benumbs all his faculties."

"Questioning is not the mode of conversation among gentlemen."

"His conversation does not show the minute hand—but he generally strikes the hour very correctly."

"Who sedulously attends, pointedly asks, calmly speaks, coolly answers, and ceases when he has no more to say, is in possession of some of the best requisites of man."

"That silence is one of the great arts of conversation is allowed by Cicero himself, who says, there is not only an art, but even an eloquence in it."

"Form'd by thy converse, happily to steer From grave to gay, from lively to severe."

"It is a secret known but to few, yet of no small use in the conduct of life, that when you fall into a man's conversation, the first thing you should consider is, whether he has a greater inclination to hear you, or that you should hear him."

"Writing, when properly managed (as you may be sure I think mine is), is but a different name for conversation."

"And surely one of the best rules in conversation is, never to say a thing which any of the company can reasonably wish had been left unsaid…"

"A dearth of words a woman need not fear; But 'tis a task indeed to learn to hear: In that the skill of conversation lies; That shows or makes you both polite and wise."

"Many can argue, not many converse."

"Conversation presupposes a common sympathy in the subject, a great equality in the speakers; absence of egotism, a tender criticism of what is spoken."

"Egotists cannot converse, they talk to themselves only."

"Conversation is a game of circles."

"When we are in the company of sensible men we ought to be doubly cautious of talking too much, lest we lose two good things, their good opinion, and our own improvement, and disclose one thing which had better have been concealed, our self-sufficiency; for what we have to say we know, but what they have to say we know not."

"Conversation is the laboratory and workshop of the student."

"Inject a few raisins of conversation into the tasteless dough of existence."