c2p-cmd/Good-Quotes-Authors huggingface dataset:
I am disgusted that I was often taken into their bed and told to do things to both of them. The things a decent parent wouldn't think of. I didn't know that having sex with her or with him was wrong because I'd never known anything else but I never understood why it used to hurt so much. It carried on right until she died and I am sure that if she was still alive it would still be going on now. I wished someone would help me and stop them hurting me. I tried to do what they told me to do because somethings they were nice to me if I did it properly."- Graham talks about being sexually abused by his mother (and her boyfriend)Graham was sexually abused by his mother. The only person who showed him any affection in his childhood was his grandmother."My mother always told me the police would think I was a 'dirty little bastard' if I told them and they would take me away to a children's home and I would never see grandmother again.""I knew it was my fault and nobody would believe me."- Graham Children often do not tell about abuse because of their fears about how other people will respond. The most common fear is that they will not be believed, It is a child's word against an adult's and the adult may be well liked and respected in the community. Nowadays, because of the television and newspaper coverage, people are aware that child sexual abuse does happen. In the recent past it was thought to be a rare occurrence, so even if they were trusted adults around for a child to tell, the adult would probably have found it difficult to believe and would have little idea what to do about it.
— Carolyn Ainscough, Breaking Free: Help For Survivors Of Child Sexual Abuse
It is the selfish parents who are to blame. Pay attention, be involved in your children’s lives. They are your legacy, your only hope.
— Aaron B. Powell, Benjamin
I Want to ShoutLeave me alone!What's wrong with you?Don't you remember who I am? Who you are?This is not a father's love! I want to scream, Can't you see what you are doing to me? What you've done to me? What you've made of me? I want to cry out, I am your little girl. I am not your girlfriend. I am not your whore. I am not my fucking mother! But he is on top of me and my shout is silenced. He is inside of me and my scream stays there too. He is finished. And I don't cry out, but I do cry a bucket of silent tears. He slithers away and at last, I quietly sob
— Ellen Hopkins, Identical
Not even Carol knows firsthand how it feels to be hurt in such a way by someone who's supposed to protect you
— Ellen Hopkins, Identical
Cruel Harvest by Fran Elizabeth Grubb is a memoir that will touch your heart.
— Fran Elizabeth Grubb, Cruel Harvest
If you're going through hell, keep going
— Winston  Churchill
When leaders lack expertise, nothing else works
— V.S. Parani, Golden Stripes - Leadership on the High Seas
Foolish is the leader whom in the midst of organizational chaos believes since no one is approaching them with issues or concerns then everything must be doing fine. When your Soldiers cease communicating with you are 3ft into a 6ft hole.
— Donavan Nelson Butler, Master Sergeant US Army
As long as you're actively trying to achieve your goals your successes are rewards and your short comings are lessons learned
— Donavan Nelson Butler, Master Sergeant US Army
Leading by example through "Servant Leadership" used to be a badge of honor that distinguished you from the Corps of the Blue Falcon. Present day I see the ranks of the Blue Falcon surging in a flagless flotilla of blurred morals, a low tide of integrity, and selfish ethics adrift with no anchorage. The pulse of the led is directly influenced by the organizational heart rate of the leader.
— Donavan Nelson Butler, Master Sergeant US Army
Know when to push, pull or hold your followers, lest you push them while they are on the edge of a cliff
— Lazarus Takawira, The Public Servant
Some might argue that a diamond is the earths hardest carbon based substance. However, I'd challenge that with the resolve, resilience, and tenacity of a committed carbon based Noncommissioned Officer.
— Donavan Nelson Butler, Master Sergeant US Army
I'm often called in as a coach and speaker to motivate staff, teams, the public and leaders. The key to this is simple; you cannot truly, deeply and sustainably motivate anybody until you know what their motives are...what motivates them...?
— Rasheed Ogunlaru
Every time you practice a weakness, you feed it. And the things you feed grow in your life
— Mlungisi Simelane
Embracing failure is the stepping stone to success
— Uche Okorie
What is your message ? And who will you be telling ?
— Penny du Toit
Truth is after you've put out all the INFO to your Soldiers in formation they'll soon forget what you said but will never forget what you did behind those words.
— Donavan Nelson Butler
Even the most absent minded Soldier will develope a memory like a elephant when mistreated.
— Donavan Nelson Butler
The fragile ego of a poor leader can not resist the urge to tug at the delicate fabric of good order and disipline thus unraveling their own true nature.
— Donavan Nelson Butler
Be the leader that doesn´t need a title to be followed.
— Alin Sav
If you are good follower, you have the same importance as a good leader.
— Alin Sav
Love cares about you. Leadership carries you.
— Alin Sav
Leaders are intentionally lucky.
— Alin Sav
Know when to push, pull & hold your followers, lest you push them while on the edge of a cliff
— Lazarus Takawira
Being a young leader is not the problem, having a small mind is
— Lazarus Takawira, Imagine Africa
Don’t remove the ladder once you done with it. Leave it for others to climb too
— Lazarus Takawira, Imagine Africa: Home Hope Harmony
Listen more to the one who criticizes you and less to the one who praises you. Learn from them and do something about it.
— paul kagame
Leadership without a following is null and at best loitering
— Lazarus Takawira, Imagine Africa
A chosen leader is just the reflection of what the collective mind (or "silent majority") truly think and feel.
— Dembe Michael
Good leadership isn't about what you say but what you do.
— Abdulazeez Henry Musa
Judge behavior, not motives.
— Miles Anthony Smith, Why Leadership Sucks™ Volume 2: The Pain, Pitfalls, and Challenges of Servant Leadership Fundamentals
Micromanagement is the destroyer of momentum.
— Miles Anthony Smith, Why Leadership Sucks™ Volume 2: The Pain, Pitfalls, and Challenges of Servant Leadership Fundamentals
The importance of momentum in your organization cannot be understated!
— Miles Anthony Smith, Why Leadership Sucks™ Volume 2: The Pain, Pitfalls, and Challenges of Servant Leadership Fundamentals
A good leader is known by ‘his qualities’ not ‘his authorities’.
— Abdulazeez Henry Musa
great attitude make your character and sets your path.
— José Meléndez
A praiseworthy King is he who doesn't seek the most expensive throne, rather the most effective leadership style.
— Gugu Mona
United a herd is an army
—  divided a herd is fair game.
I hang around shepherds because I can't talk to sheep.
— James Jean-Pierre
Great leaders make an impact with limited resources and inefficient leaders cannot yield good returns even with abundant resources.
— Gugu Mona
A true leader inspires by being among the people, not above them.
— Lynda Cheldelin Fell
A good leader lead from the heart not the head.
— Abdulazeez Henry Musa
So many teachers teach us but we shall always remember certain teachers
— Ernest Agyemang Yeboah
The king should be the servant of his people, and seek to uplift them and their lives.
— Aleksandra Layland, Of Wisdom and Valor: The Art of War. The Path of Peace.
don't think that warriors fit your standards
— Alessandro Malaguti
Do not hire those who are incapable.Do not fire those who are capable.A small, devoted army is greaterthan a large, indifferent one.
— Matshona Dhliwayo
Your employees are your warriors
—  you are their general. Each sale is a victory.
If you despise your people,you will disregard them.If you hate your people,you will harm them.If you esteem your people,you will serve them.If you love your people,you will even die for them.
— Matshona Dhliwayo
Lead rationally.Lead responsibly.Lead resiliently.Lead reliably.
— Matshona Dhliwayo
What supporters say about their leadertells men a third about who he is.What supporters do for their leadertells men two thirds about who he is.What supporters give up for their leadertells men all of who he is.
— Matshona Dhliwayo
Lead competently.Lead productively.Lead skillfully.Lead excellently.
— Matshona Dhliwayo
Average leaders take you to the mountain.Superior leaders take you up the mountain.Excellent leaders take you to mountaintop.Transcendent leaders take you to the stars.
— Matshona Dhliwayo
Guide humbly.Guide happily.Guide hopefully.Guide honorably.
— Matshona Dhliwayo
Guide impactfully.Guide impressively.Guide intuitively.Guide incredibly.
— Matshona Dhliwayo
Guide valiantly.Guide venerably.Guide valiantly.Guide virtuously.
— Matshona Dhliwayo
Suspense consumes your opponents, whereas mystery intrigues your followers.
— Matshona Dhliwayo
A general is powerless without an army.An army is directionless without a general.To win battles a general and an army need each other.
— Matshona Dhliwayo
Kings struggle to rule over nations,men struggle to rule over themselves;God effortlessly rules the universe.
— Matshona Dhliwayo
Leading fools is like leading no one.Following a fool is like following no one.The wise make the best leaders and followers.
— Matshona Dhliwayo
You cannot lead those who do not want to follow.
— Matshona Dhliwayo
In serving the poor,one serves humanity.In serving mankind,one serves equity.In serving goodness,one serves God.In serving the Creator,one serves himself.
— Matshona Dhliwayo
It is not important who the leader is. It's important what and where he/she leads one to.
— Amit Abraham
Be a leader for the right reasons”.
— Abdulazeez Henry Musa
Be a leader with exceptional qualities, not deceptive qualities”.
— Abdulazeez Henry Musa
A ruler who is loved is greater than a ruler who is feared.
— Matshona Dhliwayo
The quality of a conqueror is to be judged as much by what he spears as by what he spares
— Agona Apell, The Success Genome Unravelled: Turning Men from Rot to Rock
You cannot lead and follow a herd at the same time.
— Matshona Dhliwayo
There are those who will hate you for the wrong reasons; you must be shrewd but innocent around them. There are those who will hate you for the right reasons, you must listen to them.Then there are those who will love you for the wrong reasons, you need them but never listen to them, and those who love you for the right reasons you must always keep near.
— Matshona Dhliwayo
If you want to lead, study Moses; if you want to manage study Pharaoh.
— Jason  Taylor, Lead Yourself To Financial Success: How To Become A Great Leader, Add Value To Any Organization, And Increase Overall Prosperity In As Little As Three Months
I have met so-called leaders who showed fear in a moment when strength was required, and they give leadership a bad name.
— Jason  Taylor, Lead Yourself To Financial Success: How To Become A Great Leader, Add Value To Any Organization, And Increase Overall Prosperity In As Little As Three Months
Good leaders are intelligent
— great leaders are wise.Good leaders are bold
When you lead the wise, walk behind them.When you lead the virtuous, walk beside them.When you lead the imprudent, walk in front of them.
— Matshona Dhliwayo
The greatest leaders are the greatest servants.
— Matshona Dhliwayo
Good leaders teach you how to swim to the shore
— great leaders teach you how to walk on water.
Indecisive? Ask Yourself the Question: Does It Add Value To My Life and Makes Me Happy?
— Marieke Stoop
Following the herd reduces you to a cow.
— Matshona Dhliwayo
The shepherd's fortune is in his sheep.
— Matshona Dhliwayo
It's not enough to be busy
—  so are the ants. The question is: what are we busy about?
Passion + Persistence + Patience = Success.
— Polly Letofsky, 3mph:The Adventures of One Woman's Walk Around the World
Ordinary leaders move mounds,good leaders move hills,but great leaders move mountains.
— Matshona Dhliwayo
You all are the reason for my existence,if there is no YOU, there is no ME
— Adeola Alao
An innovative idea is special because only a certain few get to have it
— Scott E Roy
You can succeed beyond the past, but not beyond your belief
— Orrin Woodward
A bird in the hand was worth two in the bush, he told her, to which she retorted that a proverb was the last refuge of the mentally destitute.
— W. Somerset Maugham, The Painted Veil
She is clothed in strength and dignity, and she laughs without fear of the future.
— Anonymous, Holy Bible: King James Version
Out here, it's better safe than sorry, because generally speaking, too much of the time sorry means you're dead.
— Patricia C. Wrede, Across the Great Barrier
Steer your boat with justice: forge A tongue on truth's anvil.
— Pindar, Selected Odes
Where there's smoke around a conservative, there are journalists furiously rubbing two sticks together.
— Ann Coulter
The young must not scoff at the old, for flowers don’t bloom forever
— Mo Yan, Red Sorghum
A truth spoken before its time is dangerous.
— Greek Proverb
There’s a Russian proverb: To taste the ocean, all you need is one gulp.
— Howard Norman, My Darling Detective
The bitter heart eats its owner...
— Bantu Proverbs
Don't think there are no crocodiles because the water is calm.
— Malayan proverb
What is coming is better than what is gone..
— Arabic proverb
In a lawsuit the first to speak seems right,until someone comes forward and cross-examines.
— Proverbs 18:17
Better a little with righteousnessthan much gain with injustice.
— Proverbs 16:8
When you do a bad deed, if God did not forgive you, it might punishes you at the same time of conducting the bad deed, or it will take forty years, if during forty years you did not get the punishment, be sure will keep the punishment for you to the day of judgment.
— Kamaran Ihsan Salih
It was the call for animals that have two horns that brought out the snail
— Ikechukwu Joseph, The Complete Leader: Jesus Christ the Accomplished Perfect Total Leader
Going to upward is hard, facing downward is harder, that's why you have to be well prepared.
— Kamaran Ihsan Salih
Don't confuse the finger for the moon
— proverb
El hambre agudiza el ingenio,” said Raphael.Hunger sharpens the wit.“Good proverb,” said Magnus. “However, like most proverbs, it sounds wise and yet does not actually clarify anything.
— Cassandra Clare, Saving Raphael Santiago
Naogopa simba na meno yake siogopi mtu kwa maneno yake(I fear a lion with his strong teeth but not a man with his words)
— Swahili saying
A knife may scar a body, but a careless word will wound a soul.
— Bangambiki Habyarimana
Commit your work to the Lord, and then your plans will succeed.” (Proverbs 16:3).
— Bible, NIV Pocket Cross-Reference Bible Niv372z Black Bonded Leather, with Zip Fastener
When the cat gets hungry, it starts to steal.
— Kamaran Ihsan Salih, Latest Proverbs
There is no death, only a change of worlds.
— Duwamish Proverb
There are no good men among the living, and no bad ones among the dead
— Pashtun Proverb
Never sell the bear's skin before one has killed the beast.
— Jean de La Fontaine
A club hurts the flesh, but evil words hurt the bone. -Traditional Chinese Proverb
— Matthew Polly, American Shaolin: Flying Kicks, Buddhist Monks, and the Legend of Iron Crotch: An Odyssey in the New China
The English have a proverb, 'Conscience makes cowboys of us all'.
— Saki
Don't marry for money, you can borrow it cheaper.
— Scottish Proverb
Don't take any wooden Bitcoins.
— Sandra Peterson Ramirez
Do you know Eastern proverbs?"Unskilled guns, but... The more guns, the likely they will hit..."I've got plenty of Akuma to go around.
— Katsura Hoshino, D.Gray-man, Vol. 1
He sleeps for himself and dreams for others.
— Anonymous
That which falls off a lorry belongs to he who follows the lorry.
— Michael de Larrabeiti, The Borribles
It's impossible to lose that which does not belong to you.
— Michael de Larrabeiti, The Borribles
When you go to see the lake, you also see the hippos.
— William Kamkwamba, The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: Creating Currents of Electricity and Hope
Feed a squirrel and he'll leave you alone every day.
— Brian Spellman, If the mind fits, shrink it
Let thy discontents be thy secrets
— Benjamin Franklin
We aren't going to choose paths of wisdom if we don't trust the One who has marked out those paths for us. Fear of the Lord is trust in the Lord
— Lydia Brownback, A Woman's Wisdom: How the Book of Proverbs Speaks to Everything
Wisdom is the principal thing
—  therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding.
How much better is it to get wisdom than gold! and to get understanding rather to be chosen than silver!
— Anonymous
Ordinary people believe only in the possible. Extraordinary people visualize not what is possible or probable, but rather what is impossible. And by visualizing the impossible, they begin to see it as possible
— Cherie Carter-Scott
When Henry Ford decided to produce his famous V-8 motor, he chose to build an engine with the entire eight cylinders cast in one block, and instructed his engineers to produce a design for the engine. The design was placed on paper, but the engineers agreed, to a man, that it was simply impossible to cast an eight-cylinder engine-block in one piece.Ford replied,''Produce it anyway.
— Henry Ford
All things are possible until they are proved impossible and even the impossible may only be so, as of now.
— Pearl S. Buck
All the time I think I can never love you more than I already do. And then you do something or say something, and I love you more than ever. Like just now. Like now. How is it possible? Can you love someone more and more and at the same time, all the time, love them as much as it's possible to love someone?
— Aidan Chambers, This is All: The Pillow Book of Cordelia Kenn
Very possible! Possible, indeed. Maybe even probable, which, as you know if you study your arithmetic,can happen more often than possible. In other words, probable is more possible than possible. - Bubo
— Kathryn Lasky, The Rescue
It is possible to be a puppet on a string, controlled by hidden forces.
— Steven Redhead, Life Is A Cocktail
Losing some data is possible... after too much of it... everything remains possible.
— Deyth Banger
in order to isolate what was possible, you had to eliminate everything that was impossible
— Jo Nesbø, The Snowman
Only those who can see the invisible, can do the impossible.
— Jeffrey Fry
To be motivated by divine love is for everything to be possible
— Sunday Adelaja
4 Hours, 48 Minutes and 19 Seconds here the point is that everything is possible.
— Deyth Banger, 4 Hours 49 Minutes 19 Seconds
The possible is just the impossible that we've come to accept,
— Stewart Stafford
When I read something by someone... I like to dive in his world as much as possible.
— Deyth Banger
I love Nigerians because they are extra ordinary people they make impossible to be possible.
— Saminu Kanti
Every time you say it is impossible, you shoot yourself in the foot
— Bangambiki Habyarimana, Pearls Of Eternity
Love makes things possible, not easy.
— Sam Gayton
I can reincarnated as much as possible. But if the result from the different individual's is the same or the point where I reach after a lot of moves is the same. What is really the purpose to do it??
— Deyth Banger
In my way of thinking, anything is possible. Life is at the bottom of things and belief at the top, while the creative impulse, dwelling in the center, informs all.
— Patti Smith, M Train
It is possible to build a system that could assure you of increase on constant basis
— Sunday Adelaja
Oh my great hope, all things are possible if you have the right knowledge
— T.A. Cline, Archomai
Given enough time, the impossible becomes possible.
— Suzanne Harper, The Juliet Club
Success is possible, Failure is possible, But nothing is impossible.
— Hani.N
The Commitment of being happiness as well willingness makes the feasible from Impossible
— Avinash Advani
It's possible to avoid a war. It's impossible to stop it.
— Arely Martinez Garcia
But with superior morale, with an unwavering, fanatical spirit, everything is possible!
— Timur Vermes, Er ist wieder da
Nothing is impossible, the world it's self says I'm possible!
— Audrey Hepburn
All was possible
—  all is possible and all shall be possible! This philosophy will destroy every impossibilities! The doors shall be opened in places where there have never been any doors!
What is impossible today can become possible tomorrow only if we do what is possible today.
— Meenakshi Sundaram V.R, Let's Transform India - First Things First
The power of love make everything Possible
— Sugiarti Manik
By striving to do the impossible, man has always achieved what is possible. Those who have cautiously done no more than they believed possible have never taken a single step forward.
— Mikhail Bakunin
We live in such a special time when literally anything we can think of is possible.
— Daniel Willey
Would you really want to live in world where only the possible is possible?
— Polly Shulman, The Wells Bequest
Start by doing what’s necessary, then what’s possible, and suddenly you are doing the impossible.
— Francis of Assisi
Don’t see anything impossible! This simple philosophy will enable many things to be possible!
— Mehmet Murat ildan
It's easy to forget that anything is possible with these guys. That there really are no limits.
— Kevin Dutton, The Wisdom of Psychopaths: What Saints, Spies, and Serial Killers Can Teach Us About Success
Everything cannot be possible without thinking that everything is possible!
— Mehmet Murat ildan
You can only accomplish the impossible when the God of the possible is involved".~R. Alan Woods [2013]
— R. Alan Woods, The Journey Is the Destination: A Book of Quotes With Commentaries
God is all about passion for the possible.
— R. Alan Woods, The Journey Is The Destination: A Photo Journal
I dont want to hear the words "NOT POSSIBLE" they dont exist in my world - Rayvon L Browne
— Rayvon L. Browne
Good communication is as stimulating as black coffee and just as hard to sleep after.
— Anne Morrow Lindbergh, Gift from the Sea
Clearly she was expected to say something, but panic at having to speak stole the thoughts from her head.
— Shannon Hale, The Goose Girl
Just so you know, I’m goin’ to enlist.”“I’m proud of you. But why?”I groan against the pain but manage to give him a half smile. “I want to make sure Kiara’s got a boyfriend who has more to offer than a hot bod and a face that could make angels weep.
— Simone Elkeles, Rules of Attraction
That’s not the only reason I’m stayin’, chica. I can’t leave you any more than I could walkout that door right now while my leg is busted up. I was just thinkin’ . . . should we tell yourparents now or later?”“Tell them what?” I ask, eyes wide.He kisses me softly, then says proudly, “That we’re in a serious, monogamous, committedrelationship.”“We are?”“Sí. And when I get out of here, I’m gonna fix the door to your car.
— Simone Elkeles, Rules of Attraction
Are you mad?" I ask."I was." He glances at the ceiling then back at me. "Or confused, anyway. The whole thing threw me through for a loop. I thought I'd finally met a guy at Underwood I could relate to, and it turns out he wasn't a guy at all."I swallow. "I can see how that would be weird." "In a way though, I was relieved.""Relieved?" I echo. "Why?"He looks around embarrased. "Let's just say you had me questioning my sexual orientation.
— Jody Gehrman, Babe in Boyland
A conversation is a dialogue, not a monologue. That's why there are so few good conversations: due to scarcity, two intelligent talkers seldom meet.
— Truman Capote
A good conversation always involves a certain amount of complaining. I like to bond over mutual hatreds and petty grievances.
— Lisa Kleypas, Christmas Eve at Friday Harbor
Galinda didn't often stop to consider whether she believed in what she said or not
—  the whole point of conversations was flow.
Conversations consist for the most part of things one does not say.
— Cees Nooteboom
It’s no company at all, when people know nothing and say nothing,’ she muttered.
— Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights
Let us make a special effort to stop communicating with each other, so we can have some conversation.
— Mark Twain
Bit by bit, I found myself relaxing into the conversation. Kitty had a natural talent for drawing people out of themselves, and it was easy to fall in with her, to feel comfortable in her presence. As Uncle Victor had once told me long ago, a conversation is like having a catch with someone. A good partner tosses the ball directly into your glove, making it almost impossible for you to miss it; when he is on the receiving end, he catches everything sent his way, even the most errant and incompetent throws. That’s what Kitty did. She kept lobbing the ball straight into the pocket of my glove, and when I threw the ball back to her, she hauled in everything that was even remotely in her area: jumping up to spear balls that soared above her head, diving nimbly to her left or right, charging in to make tumbling, shoestring catches. More than that, her skill was such that she always made me feel that I had made those bad throws on purpose, as if my only object had been to make the game more amusing. She made me seem better than I was, and that strengthened my confidence, which in turn helped to make my throws less difficult for her to handle. In other words, I started talking to her rather than to myself, and the pleasure of it was greater than anything I had experienced in a long time.
— Paul Auster, Moon Palace
It was the kind of conversation you could only hold in whispers.
— Aimee Bender, The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake
He's never quite got the trick of conversation, tending to hear in dissenting views, however mild, a kind of affront, an invitation to mortal combat.
— Ian McEwan, Saturday
Conversation should be like juggling; up go the balls and plates, up and over, in and out, good solid objects that glitter in the footlights and fall with a bang if you miss them.
— Evelyn Waugh
Manners are the ability to put someone else at their ease...by turning any answer into another question.
— Tina  Brown
He disliked contradiction, and still more, arguments that were continually skipping from one thing to another, introducing new and disconnected points, so that there was no knowing to which to reply.
— Leo Tolstoy
Betsy liked to talk. Her father always said she got it from her mother, and her mother always said she got it from her father. But whomever she got it from she was certainly a talker.
— Maud Hart Lovelace, Betsy and Tacy Go Downtown
She felt that her speech was voicing the incoherency her thoughts, and stopped abruptly.
— Kate Chopin, The Awakening
It was as if my whole life revolved around trying to judge the appropriate point in a conversation to say goodbye
— Haruki Murakami, Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman
Can I get a lock for my tent?Bears can't unzip tents, Lana.Well, chainsaw psychos who wander the woods looking for young girls all alone to chop up into pieces can.There are no chainsaw psychos! I can't believe you've never been camping. It's safe, Lana. I promise.Easy for you to say. You'll be snuggled up safely in the arms of Beau Vincent. I'm more than positive he could take on a black bear.
— Abbi Glines, The Vincent Brothers
Tamina serves coffee and calvados to the customers (there aren't all that many, the room being always half empty) and then goes back behind the bar. Almost always there is someone sitting on a barstool, trying to talk to her. Everyone likes Tamina. Because she knows how to listen to people.But is she really listening? Or is she merely looking at them so attentively, so silently? I don't know, and it's not very important. What matters is that she doesn't interrupt anyone. You know what happens when two people talk. One of them speaks and the other breaks in: "It's absolutely the same with me, I..." and starts talking about himself until the first one manages to slip back in with his own "It's absolutely the same with me, I..."The phrase "It's absolutely the same with me, I..." seems to be an approving echo, a way of continuing the other's thought, but that is an illusion: in reality it is a brute revolt against a brutal violence, an effort to free our own ear from bondage and to occupy the enemy's ear by force. Because all of man's life among his kind is nothing other than a battle to seize the ear of others. The whole secret of Tamina's popularity is that she has no desire to talk about herself. She submits to the forces occupying her ear, never saying: "It's absolutely the same with me, I...
— Milan Kundera, The Book of Laughter and Forgetting
I've been talking to myself a lot lately. I don't know what that's about, but my mother was the same way. She hated to make small talk with other people, but get her into a conversation with herself and she was quite the raconteur. She would tell herself a joke and clap her hands together as she let out a laugh; she would murmur to the plants as she watered them, and offer encouragement to the food as she cooked it. Sometimes I would walk into a room and surprise her as she was regaling herself with some delightful story, and I remember how the sound would dry up in her mouth. She stood there, frozen in the headlights of my teenage scorn.
— Dan Chaon, Stay Awake
If they’re together long enough, every couple has one conversation over and over. This was ours.
— Frederick Weisel, Teller
Words were few and failing between them as though the silence that sat with them had laid its old lips on theirs and sucked them dry of speech. For where could one begin? With the weather? But here there was no weather. These few sad rooms were the old man's world. His horizons were all walls.
— Michael Bedard, Redwork
The first conversation began awkwardly, although Espinoza had been expecting Pelletier's call, as if both men found it difficult to say what sooner or later the would have to say. The first twenty minutes were tragic in tone, with the word fate used ten times and the word friendship twenty-four times. Liz Norton's name was spoken fifty times, nine of them in vain. The word Paris was said seven times, Madrid, eight. The word love was spoken twice, once by each man. The word horror was spoken six times and the word happiness once (by Espinoza). The word solution was said twelve times. The word solipsism seven times. The world euphemism ten times. The word category, in the singular and the plural, nine times. The word structuralism once (Pelletier). The term American literature three times. The words dinner or eating or breakfast or sandwich nineteen times. The words eyes or hands or hair fourteen times. The the conversation proceeded more smoothly.
— Roberto Bolaño, 2666
Conversation is the Best Content.
— Ted Rubin, The Age of Influence: Selling to the Digitally Connected Customer
In the best conversations, you don't even remember what you talked about, only how it felt. It felt like we were in some place your body can't visit, some place with no ceiling and no walls and no floor and no instruments
— John Green, Turtles All the Way Down
I love talking the way Trappists love silence.
— Marty Rubin
I love to talk to people who love to talk. The warmth, the energy, the humanity.
— Marty Rubin
Talking to people is the most educational thing I know.
— Marty Rubin
I sort of thought that maybe people had to talk that way, sort of saying the same things over and over because that way they can get along together without thinking." She stopped and thought. Why I was so worried,” she said, “was because if people didn't say those damn things over and over, then they wouldn't talk to each other at all.
— Shirley Jackson, Just an Ordinary Day: The Uncollected Stories
God does not require from you empty words or idle conversations
— Sunday Adelaja
Talking to Rhett was comparable only to one thing, the feeling of ease and comfort afforded by a pair of old slippers after dancing in a pair too tight.
— Margaret Mitchell, Gone with the Wind
As the Athenians to the Pnyx, the antique Romans to the Campus Martius, or our Nordic ancestors to the All-Thing, so the folk of Tilling flocked to the High Street for extempore parliament.
— Tom Holt, Lucia Triumphant
Perfect the art of the pause for this is when the Holy Spirit speaks. Pausing creates white space in a conversation that enables the Holy Spirit to sort out our thoughts before we let out our words of life or death.
— John M Sheehan
Everyone had something disparaging to say about the unfortunate Maltyshcheva, and the conversation began crackling merrily like a kindling bonfire.
— Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina
[I retained] only the Habit of expressing my self in Terms of modest Diffidence, never using when I advance any thing that may possibly be disputed, the Words 'Certainly, 'undoubtedly', or any others that I give the Air of Positiveness to an Opinion; but rather say 'I conceive', or 'I apprehend a Thing to be so or so', 'It appears to me', or 'I should think it so or so for such & such Reasons', or 'I imagine' it to be so or so, or 'it is so' if I am not mistaken.—This Habit I believe has been of great Advantage to me, when I have had occasion to inculcate my Opinions and persuade Men into Measures that I have been from time to time engag'd in promoting.—And as the chief Ends of Conversation are to inform, or to be informed, to please or to persuade, I wish well meaning sensible Men would not lessen their Power of doing Good by a Positive assuming Manner that seldom fails to disgust, tends to create Opposition, and to defeat every one of those purposes for which Speech was given to us, to wit, giving or receiving Information or Pleasure: For if you would inform, a positive dogmatical Manner in advancing your Sentiments, may provoke Contradiction & prevent a candid Attention.
— Benjamin Franklin, The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
Perhaps it is easy for men to start a conversation by admiring women. Many times they may not mean it, but still they say it. Women may not believe it, but still they like to believe it.
— Girdhar Joshi, Some Mistakes Have No Pardon
And there you go again, that tone in your voice, never a word out of place, but your tone says clearly, 'You are a fucking psycho bitch and I hate you.
— Laurell K. Hamilton, A Shiver of Light
Brock sighed. “Alright then, Spunky. I was thinking about life, I guess.”	Spunky grunted. “In other words, you were thinking about a woman.”	“I didn't say that—”	“No.” Spunky grinned knowingly. “But your face did.
— Willowy Whisper, The Letter
Four days, eight days, twelve days passed, and he was invited to teas, to suppers, to lunches. They sat talking through the long green afternoons - they talked of art, of literature, of life, of society and politics. They ate ice creams and squabs and drank good wines.
— Ray Bradbury, Dandelion Wine
I cherish genuine conversation, where people actually care what someone else has to say.
— Charles F. Glassman, Brain Drain   The Breakthrough That Will Change Your Life
Hey, ... my name is DeYtH Banger, (So far thanks for reading this it's pretty interesting coversation... isn't it?).
— Deyth Banger
You don't talk much, do you?" she blurted out."I didn't think there was a need. You seem to be holding up both our ends of the conversation admirably.
— Julia Quinn, Dancing at Midnight
I know my rights.""And I know you're wrong.
— Scott Blagden, Dear Life, You Suck
Her English was sweet, an effort for her, anachronistic and unpractised.
— Ruth Ahmed, When Ali Met Honour
The trouble is that many people regard disagreement as unrelated to either teaching or being taught. They think that everything is just a matter of opinion. I have mine, and you have yours; and our right to our opinions is as inviolable as our right to private property. On such a view, communication cannot be profitable if the profit to be gained is an increase in knowledge. Conversation is hardly better than a ping-pong game of opposed opinions, a game in which no one keeps score, no one wins, and everyone is satisfied because he does not lose - that is, he ends up holding the same opinions he started with.
— Mortimer J. Adler, How to Read a Book: The Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading
And once again, only the Small Things were said. The Big Things lurked unsaid inside.
— Arundhati Roy, The God of Small Things
Though we've talked and talked and talked, we've all agreed not to say a word.
— J.D. Salinger, Franny and Zooey
At that moment I would have welcomed spider-rats nibbling on my toes about as much as the idea of chatting with a missionary priest.
— Dan Simmons, The Rise of Endymion
Some conversations are not about what they're about.
— Anne Carson, Red Doc>
It does seem so pleasant to talk with an old acquaintance that knows what you know. I see so many of these new folks nowadays, that seem to have neither past nor future. Conversation's got to have some root in the past, or else you've got to explain every remark you make, an' it wears a person out.
— Sarah Orne Jewett, The Country of the Pointed Firs
It is distressing how often we repeat ourselves. When we ask questions, we know the answers already. We've grown accustomed to horizontal communication, flatlining banalities and droning insignificance.
— Louisa Hall
A conversation between Adso and William -You understand, Adso, I must believe that my proposition works, because I learned it by experience; but to believe it I must assume there are universal laws. Yet I cannot speak of them, because the very concept that universal laws and an established order exist would imply that God is their prisoner, whereas God is something absolutely free, so that if He wanted, with a single act of His will He could make the world different.""And so, if I understand you correctly, you act, and you know why you act, but you don't know know why you know that you know what you do?"I must say with pride that William gave me a look of admiration. "Perhaps that's it. In any case, this tells you why I feel so uncertain of my truth, even if I believe in it.
— Umberto Eco
Can I get your cell phone number so we can text like normal antisocial human beings, since we are both too fucked up to have a conversation?
— J.P. Barnaby, Aaron
Durkon: You're only saying that because you don't want the world t
— Rich Burlew
They said words they did not mean, and their conversations seemed to follow all kinds of rules—rules that no one has ever explained to Oscar.
— Anne Ursu, The Real Boy
Why is it women can never let a man have any fun, they just want to fuss about something.” “They’re practical” Austin said, shaking off some of the water droplets from his hair. “We live in the moment and they think about what’s coming. If they didn’t keep us in check, we’d fuck up the planet”.
— Dannika Dark, Seven Years
Three-Step Method for Making Stronger Connections: Take the Triangle Talk approach to connecting and reaching agreement with others: You, Me, Us. First refer to their interest, then yours - and then note how your interests coincide. This approach enables diverse people to gain traction sooner toward a common goal.
— Kare Anderson, Getting What You Want: 2how to Reach Agreement and Resolve Conflict Every Time
The quality of conversation appears to be a key factor in the evolution of an organization.
— Philip Streatfield, The Paradox of Control in Organizations
I see the pain of miserly love in young people,' I say. 'You don't have that kind of melancholy on your face. But I'm careful not to step on your feet when I speak with you. It's not like dancing. It's like a stone walkway with a little grass between the cracks. It's strong but I will try to tread carefully and not ruin it. In Muslim homes you leave your shoes outside. This is how I behave with you.
— Erri De Luca, Tre cavalli
At some point in my early forties I realized that my primary goal in just about any verbal exchange is to lighten the mood.
— Meghan Daum
One never said the things one wanted — one remembered them all an hour afterwards. On the other hand one usually said a lot of things one shouldn't, simply from a sense that one had to say something.
— Henry James, The Portrait of a Lady
Past conversations were slowly realigning in Blue's head, taking on new shades of meaning as they did.
— Maggie Stiefvater, Blue Lily, Lily Blue
Genuine people never seems to be in rush. In their conversation they make the other person feel special.
— Kishore Bansal
He began to prefer talking on the phone to actually getting together with someone, preferred the bodilessness of it, and started to turn down social engagements. He didn't want to actually sit across from someone in a restaurant, look at their face, and eat food. He wanted to turn away, not deal with the face, have the waitress bring them two tin cans and some string so they could just converse, in a faceless dialogue.
— Lorrie Moore, Like Life
Moreover it is easier, in the informality of conversation, to achieve that excitement and incoherence which is the true eloquence of love.
— Pierre-Ambroise Choderlos de Laclos, Les Liaisons dangereuses
Talking with three people deeply is better than talking with thirty people superficially.
— Todd Stocker
Stephen Tennant is the most sparkling talker who ever comes to my house, and perhaps the most amusing. He dances like the will-o'-the-wisp where other people stick in the mud. Though his really kindred spirits are the most exotic people he can find, he also greatly enjoys a talk with some extremely commonplace person, when he pretends that he thinks they mean something which they never thought of in their lives. He can be by turns poetic, malicious, and nonsensical. His talk is very pictorial and he handles words as if they were pait on a brush. When Stephen is alone with one friend he is often drawn to speak of very grave and profound subjects, and then he becomes unhappy, for he is never sure about what he loves and believes in, and would like to love and believe in so much.
— Edith Olivier, Without Knowing Mr Walkley
However, James and Aamir did not discuss their astounding box office grosses or formulas for success.Instead, they exchanged notes on the process of film-making; how ideas, even seemingly crazy ones that require developing a unique camera, as James did for Avatar, become a reality; how stories and not special effects are the heartbeat of movies.
— Anupama Chopra
Plato worried that philosophical writing would take the place of living conversations for which, in philosophy, there is no substitute.
— Rebecca Goldstein, Plato at the Googleplex: Why Philosophy Won't Go Away
Everything that happens now in the online world is part of a conversation. The problem with this (if we can call it a problem) is that this conversation takes place frequently asynchronously and often across platforms.
— David Amerland, SEO Help: 20 Semantic Search Steps that Will Help Your Business Grow
Now that he was semidressed, I recovered enough to say, “Not really. But I guess if you want me to hold a conversation with you, you should keep your clothes on.”He gestured for me to follow him through the house, and I thought I heard him mutter, “Conversation is so overrated.
— Renae Kaye, Shawn's Law
No one likes sarcasm, Miss Cain. I’ve merely delayed my exit to promise you something. You took my straight razor, li’l darlin’. That I view as an unforgivable offense. So when the time comes, when you have served your purpose, I swear to you I’m gonna kill you for free.” And with that, Billy-Ray Sanguine disappeared into the ground. Then he popped his head back up. “Or at least half price.” And he was gone again.
— Derek Landy, Playing with Fire
If you hear I will speak but if you listen I will talk.
— Pushpa Rana, Just the Way I Feel
The difference between educated people and uneducated people is that educated people have been opened up to the notion that you can disagree without fighting; whereas uneducated people, in conversation, seek to always agree--everybody agrees and agrees and that's considered basic social libation.
— John McWhorter
Women prefer speaking to talking.
— Raheel Farooq
I didn't intend to go in that direction but strange things happen when the lights go out.
— Donna Lynn Hope
Thomas's mistake, like most of the behavior he leaked into the world, had been avoidable: to join another human being in a situation that virtually demanded unscripted, spontaneous conversation, and thus to risk total moral and emotional dissolution. Death by conversation, and all that.
— Ben Marcus, Leaving the Sea
We humans always seem to take a manipulative posture. No matter what the particulars of the situation, or the subject matter, we prepare ourselves to say whatever we want in order to prevail in the conversation. Each of us seeks to find some way to control and thus to remain on top in the encounter. If we are successful, or our viewpoint prevails, then rather than feel weak, we receive a psychological boost.
— James Redfield
Jack Kennedy brought an "intense concentration" and a "gently teasing humor" to the dinner table, along with what Katherine Graham called his habit of "vacuum cleaning your brain.
— Sally Bedell Smith, Grace and Power: The Private World of the Kennedy White House
It has been said already, but bears repeating: no blanket statement can sum up an entire group of people. No book, no chapter, no study, no research report can attempt to do that either. Instead, Understanding Y attempts to start a conversation - one that we hope will delve a little deeper and dispel some commonly held assumptions about Generation Y, a conversation that we hope is the first of many.
— Charlie Caruso, Understanding y
My phone buzzes. It’s from Karou: a list of conversation openers that I won’t be needing. —a) Hi. I’m Zuzana. I’m actually a marionette brought to life by the Blue Fairy, and the only way I can gain a soul is if a human falls in love with me. Help a puppet out? —b) Hi. I’m Zuzana. The touch of my lips imparts immortality. Just sayin’. —c) Hi. I’m Zuzana. I think I might like you.
— Laini Taylor, Night of Cake & Puppets
There is nothing that makes me happier than sitting around the dinner table and talking until the candles are burned down.
— Madeleine L'Engle, A Circle of Quiet
I was kidding. Even I'm not that promiscuous. You guru people have no sense of humor.”“I'm not a guru people, and I happen to have a very well developed sense of humor. Why else would I still be talking to you?
— Susan Elizabeth Phillips, Breathing Room
Even his conversation was, as it were, a spoken part.
— T.H. White, The Candle in the Wind
It was the talk that mattered supremely: the impassioned exchange of talk. Love was only a minor accompaniment.
— D.H. Lawrence, Lady Chatterley's Lover
I’veenjoyed our conversation, knight. It’s been nice talking to someonewho can—”“Create full and complete sentences?”That grin returned and, for a moment, his heart actually stoppedbeating. “No, it was nice to finally meet someone whose arrogance isonly rivaled by the arrogance of the gods.
— G.A. Aiken, About a Dragon
Who says you’ll get hurt again?”I pouted. “Have you met you?” “Right.
— Kate Evangelista, Relish
It's all right to hold a conversation, but you should let go of it now and then.
— Richard Armour
The people who ask questions decide the quality of their conversation.
— Vikrant Datta
He was one of that class of men who, apart from a scientific career in which they may well have proved brilliantly successful, have acquired an entirely different kind of culture, literary or artistic, for which their professional specialisation has no use but by which their conversation profits.
— Marcel Proust, Swann's Way
The duke understood the danger in having an important conversation too often in one's head before having it with the intended party.
— Miranda Davis, The Duke's Tattoo
They were going to have a conversation, he realized. Archie didn't know a lot about women, but he had been married and he knew when a conversation was coming, and he knew when a woman wanted to have one, the best thing you could do was get it over with.
— Chelsea Cain, Let Me Go
CONVERSATION is the vehicle for change.
— Terry Tempest Williams, When Women Were Birds: Fifty-four Variations on Voice