A Quote by Robertson Davies

Conversation in its true meaning isn't all wagging the tongue; sometimes it is a deeply shared silence.

Robertson Davies

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Conversation Deeply Meaning Shared Silence Sometimes Tongue True True Meaning

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Robertson Davies
Canadian - Novelist
August 28, 1913 - December 2, 1995

Silence holds the door against the strife of tongue and all the impertinences of idle conversation.

James Hervey

Well, well, perhaps I am a bit of a talker. A popular fellow such as I am -- my friends get round me -- we chaff, we sparkle, we tell witty stories -- and somehow my tongue gets wagging. I have the gift of conversation. I've been told I ought to have a salon, whatever that may be.

Kenneth Grahame

Conversation was never begun at once, nor in a hurried manner. No one was quick with a question, no matter how important, and no one was pressed for an answer. A pause giving time for thought was the truly courteous way of beginning and conducting a conversation. Silence was meaningful with the Lakota, and his granting a space of silence to the speech-maker and his own moment of silence before talking was done in the practice of true politeness and regard for the rule that, "thought comes before speech."

Luther Standing Bear

Sometimes silence resolves a conversation confused by Mad Misconstruction.

Hugh Leonard

Sometimes silence is the best way to shut down an awkward conversation.

Carole Radziwill

Silence is one great art of conversation. He is not a fool who knows when to hold his tongue; and a person may gain credit for sense, eloquence, wit, who merely says nothing to lessen the opinion which others have of these qualities in themselves.

William Hazlitt

True friendship is sitting together in silence and feeling like it was the best conversation you've ever had.

Unknown

I think women are deeply interested in a conversation around fertility. It's not a conversation just for one age group of women, a conversation if you're post 30 or post 35. This [is] conversation about reproduction, about taking your own power with you and deciding for yourself.

Staceyann Chin

There is no meaning if meaning is not shared, and not because there would be an ultimate or first signification that all beings have in common, but because meaning is itself the sharing of Being.

Jean-Luc Nancy

This conversation with the audience has been going on since, what, '72, '73... Sometimes it's like a conversation after dinner with friends. You're in a restaurant, and you got there at 8 o'clock. Suddenly, you realize it's midnight. Where did the time go? You're enjoying the conversation. It's sort of a natural, organic conversation.

Steven Van Zandt

Real speech can only come from complete silence. Incomplete silence is as fussy as deliberate conversation.

Dorothy Richardson

I think one of the reasons with problems with conversation on race is that this is such a deeply personal conversation that it requires trust and someone you know.

Jonathan Capehart

The tongue is a small member, but it does big things. A religious who does not keep silence will never attain holiness; that is, she will never become a saint. Let her not delude herself - unless it is the Spirit of God who is speaking through her, for then she must not keep silent. But, in order to hear the voice of God, one has to have silence in one's soul and to keep silence; not a gloomy silence but an interior silence; that is to say, recollection in God.

Mary Faustina Kowalska

let us thank God for having made us this gift of death, so that life is to have meaning; of night, that day is to have meaning; silence, that speech is to have meaning; illness, that health is to have meaning; war, that peace is to have meaning. Let us give thanks to Him for having given us weariness and pain, so that rest and joy are to have meaning. Let us give thanks to him, whose wisdom is infinite.

Amin Maalouf

God gave you that gifted tongue of yours, and set it between your teeth, to make known your true meaning to us, not to be rattled like a muffin man's bell.

Thomas Carlyle

If you ask him: "What is silence?" he will answer, "It is the Great Mystery! The holy silence is His voice!" If you ask: "What are the fruits of silence?" he will say: "They are self-control, true courage or endurance, patience, dignity, and reverence. Silence is the cornerstone of character."

Charles Alexander Eastman

A Quote by Robertson Davies

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