Conversation Sayings and Quotes

Below you will find our collection of inspirational, wise, and humorous old conversation quotes, conversation sayings, and conversation proverbs, collected over the years from a variety of sources.

One good conversation can shift the direction of change forever. Linda Lambert
It was impossible to get a conversation going, everybody was talking too much. Yogi Berra
Good conversation is as stimulating as black coffee, and just as hard to sleep after. Anne Morrow Lindbergh
Nothing compares to a beautiful conversation with a beautiful mind. Anonymous
Be brave enough to start a conversation that matters. Margaret Wheatley
Conversation about the weather is the last refuge of the unimaginative. Oscar Wilde
Conversation should touch everything, but should concentrate itself on nothing. Oscar Wilde
Whether in conversation we generally agree or disagree with others is largely a matter of habit: the one tendency makes as much sense as the other. Friedrich Nietzsche
The real art of conversation is not only to say the right thing at the right place but to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment. Dorothy Nevill
The primary use of conversation is to satisfy the impulse to talk. George Santayana
Conversation isn't about proving a point; true conversation is about going on a journey with the people you are speaking with. Ricky Maye
In conversation avoid the extremes of forwardness and reserve. John Byrom
Conversation is a meeting of minds with different memories and habits. When minds meet, they don't just exchange facts: they transform them, reshape them, draw different implications from them, engage in new trains of thought. Conversation doesn't just reshuffle the cards: it creates new cards. Theodore Zeldin
The conversation between your fingers and someone else's skin. This is the most important discussion you can ever have. Iain Thomas
Conversation is a catalyst for innovation. John Seely Brown
Good conversational debate is an end in itself, and talking for the love of conversation is what makes us human. Bryce Courtenay
One way to prevent conversation from being boring is to say the wrong thing . Frank Sheed
Conversation is king. Content is just something to talk about. Cory Doctorow
The happiest conversation is that of which nothing is distinctly remembered, but a general effect of pleasing impression. Samuel Johnson
Conversation, like certain portions of the anatomy, always runs more smoothly when lubricated. Marquis De Sade
Conversation is good you might not agree with everyone, but at least it gives you a chance to contemplate someone else's ideas. Brandi Chastain
Good conversation is the equivalent of shared emotion. Marty Rubin
Most conversations are simply monologues delivered in the presence of a witness. Margaret Millar
Every good conversation starts with good listening. Anonymous
A conversation is so much more than words: a conversation is eyes, smiles, and the silence between word. Annika Thor
Conversation means being able to disagree and still continue the discussion. Dwight Macdonald
The first ingredient in conversation is truth, the next good sense, the third good humor, and the fourth wit. William Temple
Conversation enriches the understanding, but solitude is the school of genius. Edward Gibbon
The true spirit of conversation consists in building on another man's observation, not overturning it. Edward Bulwer-Lytton
Deep conversations with the right people are priceless. Anonymous
A real conversation always contains an invitation. You are inviting another person to reveal herself or himself to you, to tell you who they are or what they want. David Whyte
Conversation doesn't have to lead to consensus about anything especially not values; it's enough that it helps people get used to one another Kwame Anthony Appiah
Silence is one of the great arts of conversation. Marcus Tullius Cicero
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
Conversation is much like a tennis game except that in tennis you try to put the ball in the most difficult position for the one who must hit it while in conversation you must try to put it where it will be easy to hit. Margery Wilson
A man's character may be learned from the adjectives which he habitually uses in conversation. Mark Twain
In conversation, humor is worth more than wit and easiness more than knowledge. George Herbert
The best kind of conversation is that which may be called thinking aloud. William Hazlitt
Conversation succeeds conversation, Until there's nothing left to talk about Except truth, the perennial monologue, And no talker to dispute it but itself. Laura Riding
You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation. Plato
Let the conversation flow at its own pace, don't try to rush it or control it. You need to let go and be part of the conversation. Max Weiss
Conversation should be pleasant without scurrility, witty without affectation, free without indecency, learned without conceitedness, novel without falsehood. William Shakespeare
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
Conversation is a game of circles. In conversation we pluck up the termini which bound the common of silence in every side. Ralph Waldo Emerson
The art of conversation, or the qualification for a good companion is a certain self-control, which now holds the subject, now lets it go, with a respect for the emergencies of the moment. Ralph Waldo Emerson
Conversation is an art which a man has all mankind for his competitors, for it is that which all are practising everyday while they live. Ralph Waldo Emerson
Put any company of people together with freedom for conversation, and a rapid self-distribution takes place into sets and pairs...All conversation is a magnetic experiment. Ralph Waldo Emerson
Conversation, like lettuce, requires a good deal of oil to avoid friction and keep the company snooth.Charles Dudley Warner Charles Dudley Warner
Conversation should flow, like waters after summer showers, not as if raised by mere mechanic powers. William Cowper
The conversation was just like clockwork. It recurred regularly, except that there was no need to wind anything up. Walter de la Mare
Good talk is like good scenery— continuous yet constantly varying, and full of the charm of novelty and surprise. Randolph Bourne
Good talk is like an impromptu piece of acting where each should represent himself to greatest advantage. Robert Louis Stevenson
From time to time, talk becomes effective, conquering like war, widening like boundaries of knowledge like an exploration. Robert Louis Stevenson
Good conversation, like any game, calls for equals in strength. Jacques Barzun
Natural talk like plowing, should turn up a large surface of life, rather than dig mines. Robert Louis Stevenson
It is not what we learn in conversation that enriches us. It is the elation that comes of swift contact with tingling currents of thought. Agnes Repplier
Ideal conversation must be an exchange of thought, and not, as many of those who worry most about their shortcomings believe, an eloquent exhibition of wit or oratory. Emily Post
One of the best rules of conversation is, never to say a thing which any of the company can reasonably wish had been left unsaid. Jonathan Swift
When people talk to us about others they are usually dull. When they talk to us about themselves, they are nearly always interesting. Oscar Wilde
Conversation would be vastly improved by the constant use of simple words: I do not know. Andre Maurois
The art of conversation is not knowing what you ought to say, but what one ought not to say. F.L. Lucas
A single conversation across a table with a wise man is better than ten year's study of books. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
A gossip is one who talks to you about others; a bore is one who talks to you about himself; and a brilliant conversationalist is one who talks to you about yourself. Lisa Kirk
Conversation is an exchange of thoughts that leave all parties to it a grain wiser. Alfred Whitney Griswold
The reading of good books is like a conversation with the best men of past centuries— in fact like a prepared conversation, in which they reveal only the best of their thoughts. Rene Descartes
I believe that words are strong, that they can overwhelm what we fear when fear seems more awful than life is good. Andrew Solomon
Conversation, like certain portions of the anatomy, always runs more smoothly when lubricated. Doug Wright
The art of conversation is the art of hearing as well as of being heard. William Hazlitt
The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter. Winston Churchill
Life is a conversation. Make it a good one. Glennon Doyle Melton
Women have simple tastes. They get pleasure out of the conversation of children in arms and men in love. H.L. Mencken
I never desire to converse with a man who has written more than he has read. Samuel Johnson