Quotations on Conversation

Conversation is an art in which man has all mankind for competitors.

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

I attribute the little I know to my not having been ashamed to ask for information, and to my rule of conversing with all descriptions of men on those topics that form their own peculiar professions and pursuits.

~ John Locke

A good memory and a tongue tied in the middle is a combination which gives immortality to conversation.

~ Mark Twain

Conceit causes more conversation than wit.

~ Francois de La Rochefoucauld

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

~ André Maurois

Conversation should be pleasant without scurrility, witty without affectation, free without indecency, learned without conceitedness, novel without falsehood.

~ William Shakespeare

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.

~ Earl of Chesterfield

Silence is one great art of conversation.

~ William Hazlitt

Drawing on my fine command of language, I said nothing.

~ Robert Benchley