Discourse

"And, when you stick on conversation's burs, Don't strew your pathway with those dreadful urs."

"What are the great faults of conversation? Want of ideas, want of words, want of manners, are the principal ones, I suppose you think. I don't doubt it, but I will tell you what I have found spoil more good talks than anything else;- long arguments on special points between people who differ on the fundamental principles upon which these points depend. No men can have satisfactory relations with each other until they have agreed on certain ultimata [finalities] of belief not to be disturbed in ordinary conversation, and unless they have sense enough to trace the secondary questions depending upon these ultimate beliefs to their source. In short, just as a written constitution is essential to the best social order, so a code of finalities is a necessary condition of talk between two persons."

"Ill nature is to conversation what oil is to the lamp—the only thing that keeps it alive."

"A single conversation across the table with a wise man is better than ten years' study of books."

"Men of great conversational powers almost universally practise a sort of lively sophistry and exaggeration which deceives for the moment both themselves and their auditors."

"If ... we meet a man of acknowledged mental superiority, whether generally or in his special department, it is our social duty by intelligent questioning, by an anxiety to learn from him, to force him to condescend to our ignorance, or join in our fun, till his broader sympathies are awakened, and he plays with us as if we were children. Indeed this very metaphor points out one of the very remarkable instances of social equality asserted by an inferior—I mean the outspoken freedom of the child—which possesses a peculiar charm, and often thaws the dignity or dissipates the reserve of the great man and woman whose superiority is a perpetual obstacle to them in ordinary society."

"The same thing has been said by all whom Prometheus has formed out of better clay. What pleasure could they find in the company of people with whom their only common ground is just what is lowest and least noble in their own nature—the part of them that is commonplace, trivial and vulgar? What do they want with people who cannot rise to a higher level, and for whom nothing remains but to drag others down to theirs?"

"The pith of conversation does not consist in exhibiting your own superior knowledge on matters of small consequence, but in enlarging, improving, and correcting the information you possess, by the authority of others."

"In our lives the revolutions that take place in the soul often derive from a specific day, or hour, or from an unforeseen but memorable conversation which disturbs us and plants new seeds that slowly grow, and of which the rest of our actions are simply the consequences and natural development."

"He knew very well that the great majority of human conversation is meaningless. A man can get through most of his days on stock answers to stock questions, he thought. Once he catches onto the game, he can manage with an assortment of grunts. This would not be so if people listened to each other, but they don’t. They know that no one is going to say anything moving and important to them at that very moment. Anything important will be announced in the newspapers and reprinted for those who missed it. No one really wants to know how his neighbor is feeling, but he asks him anyway, because it is polite, and because he knows that his neighbor certainly will not tell him how he feels. What this woman and I say to each other is not important. It is the simple making of sounds that pleases us."

"CONVERSATION, n. A fair to the display of the minor mental commodities, each exhibitor being too intent upon the arrangement of his own wares to observe those of his neighbor."

"Communication can only take place among equals."

"The Great Conversation began before the beginnings of experimental science. But the birth of the Conversation and the birth of science were simultaneous. The earliest of the pre-Socratics were investigating and seeking to understand natural phenomena; among them were men who used mathematical notions for this purpose. Even experimentation is not new; it has been going on for hundreds of years. But faith in experimentation as an exclusive method is a modern manifestation. ...it is now regarded in some quarters... as the sole method of obtaining knowledge of any kind."

"Do you know that conversation is one of the greatest pleasures in life? But it wants leisure."

"British conversation is like a game of cricket or a boxing match; personal allusions are forbidden like hitting below the belt, and anyone who loses his temper is disqualified."

"Each word is a singularity, or is connected with a singularity, in our way of understanding existence."

"Eloquence is a republican art, as conversation is an aristocratic one."

"There is no such thing as conversation. It is an illusion. There are intersecting monologues, that is all."

"Conversation is imperative if gaps are to be filled, and old age, it is the last gap but one."

"A philosopher who is not taking part in discussions is like a boxer who never goes into the ring."

"…a difficult dialogue is better than [having] no dialogue."

"The government has no business censoring private conversations between clients and , nor should a counselor be used as a tool to impose the government’s biased views on [his] clients."

"Tuesday the freighter steamed through the Straits of Gibraltar and for five days plowed eastward through the Mediterranean, past islands and peninsulas rich in history, so that on Saturday night the steward advised Dr. Cullinane, “If you wish an early sight of the Holy Land you must be up at dawn.."

"To forget good counsel is to forget the experiences that prompted the soul to desire prudence: and when those are forgotten, it is not surprising that prudence itself is forgotten."

"The physician can bury his mistakes, but the architect can only advise his clients to plant vines."

"If only the last of these is justifiable, all are understandable concerns. But it is hard to see what can be the purpose of musicology if not to advise people on what to hear and how to hear it."

"I always pass on good advice. It is the only thing to do with it. It is never of any use to oneself."

"You know, I want to just advise people watching at home playing that now popular drinking game of you take a shot whenever the Republicans say something that's not true:Please assign a designated driver."

"In such green palaces the first kings reign'd, Slept in their shades, and angels entertain'd; With such old counselors they did advise, And frequenting sacred groves grew wise."

"I am at heart a propagandist, "he says," a tremendous hater, a tiresome nag, complacently positive that there is no human problem which could not be solved if people would simply do as I advise."

"It is always a silly thing to give advice, but to give good advice is absolutely fatal."

"Advice is a dangerous gift, even from the wise to the wise, and all courses may run ill."

"What question can be here? Your own true heart Must needs advise you of the only part: That may be claim'd again which was but lent, And should be yielded with no discontent; Not surely can we find herein a wrong, That it was left us enjoy for so long."

"Facile omnes, quum valemus, recta consilia ægrotis damus."

"A dead father's counsel, a wise son heedeth."

"Che spesso avvien che ne' maggior perigli Son più audaci gli ottimi consigli."

"Many receive advice, only the wise profit by it."

"No one wants advice, only corroboration."

"The true secret of giving advice is, after you have honestly given it, to be perfectly indifferent whether it is taken or not, and never persist in trying to set people right. That has been my secret, and I have never had any quarrels. What if people are fools or knaves, it is not your house-keeping and you had far better leave them to their fate. The more you try to prove yourselves in the right and D. in the wrong, the more you will confirm him in his own views. Nothing makes people more furious than being proved to be in the wrong; and even if you convince D. he will always hate you."

"Seek no advice from a woman about her rival, from a coward about war, from a merchant about business, from a buyer about value, from a miser about generosity, from a cruel person about well-being, from a worthless worker about his work, from a seasonal laborer about the harvest, from an idle slave about a great task— pay no attention to any advice they give."

"Beware of a counsellor. And know before what need he hath: for he will devise to his own mind."

"Direct not him, whose way himself will choose; 'Tis breath thou lack'st, and that breath wilt thou lose."

"I pray thee cease thy counsel, Which falls into mine ears as profitless As water in a sieve."

"Here comes a man of comfort, whose advice Hath often still'd my brawling discontent."

"When a wise man gives thee better counsel, give me mine again."

"Bosom up my counsel, You'll find it wholesome."

"By 1922, General Hans von Seeckt, commander of the German armed forces, was secretly advising his government: "Poland's existence is intolerable, incompatible with the essential conditions of Germany's life. Poland must go and will go". He added that Poland's obliteration "must be one of the fundamental objectives of German policy...With the disappearance of Poland will fall one of the strongest pillars of the Versailles Peace, the hegemony of France."

"Be careful whose advice you buy, but be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia. Dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it's worth."

"Vom sichern Port lässt sich's gemächlich rathen."

"Don't use strong drink, —pray let me advise, —It 's bad for the stomach, and ruins the eyes."