"Honest disagreement is often a good sign of progress."
--Mohandas Gandhi (Indian statesman)
"There is nothing more likely to start disagreement among people or countries than an agreement."
--E. B. White (American writer)
"Everything has been said before, but since nobody listens we have to keep going back and beginning all over again."
--Andre Gide (1869-1951 French Writer)
"An association of men who will not quarrel with one another is a thing which has never yet existed, from the greatest confederacy of nations down to a town meeting or a vestry."
--Thomas Jefferson
"The aim of argument, or of discussion, should not be victory, but progress."
--Joseph Joubert
"When all are wrong, everyone is right."
--La Lehaussee
"It is better to debate a question without settling it than to settle it without debate."
--Joseph Joubert
"No matter what side of the argument you are on, you always find people on your side that you wish were on the other."
--Jascha Heifetz
"The true spirit of conversation consists in building on another man's observation, not overturning it."
--Edward G. Bulwer-Lytton 1803-1873, British Writer
"A sudden silence in the middle of a conversation suddenly brings us back to essentials: it reveals how dearly we must pay for the invention of speech."
--E. M. Cioran 1911-, Rumanian-born French Philosopher
"Repartee is perfect when it effects its purpose with a double edge. It is the highest order of wit, as it indicates the coolest yet quickest exercise of genius, at a moment when the passions are roused."
" Reply to wit with gravity, and to gravity with wit."
--(both quotes)--Charles Caleb Colton 1780-1832, British Sportsman, Writer
"Conversation is an art in which a man has all mankind for competitors."
--Ralph Waldo Emerson 1803-1882, American Poet, Essayist
" No collection of people who are all waiting for the same thing are capable of holding a natural conversation. Even if the thing they are waiting for is only a taxi."
--Ben Elton 1959-, British Author, Performer
" The great secret of succeeding in conversation is to admire little, to hear much; always to distrust our own reason, and sometimes that of our friends; never to pretend to wit, but to make that of others appear as much as possibly we can; to hearken to what is said and to answer to the purpose."
--Benjamin Franklin 1706-1790, American Scientist, Publisher, Diplomat
"Conversation. What is it? A Mystery! It's the art of never seeming bored, of touching everything with interest, of pleasing with trifles, of being fascinating with nothing at all. How do we define this lively darting about with words, of hitting them back and forth, this sort of brief smile of ideas which should be conversation?"
--Guy de Maupassant 1850-1893, French Writer
"There is no conversation more boring than the one where everybody agrees."
--Michel Eyquem De Montaigne 1533-1592, French Philosopher, Essayist
" Not only to say the right thing in the right place, but far more difficult, to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment."
--George Sala
"Conversation has a kind of charm about it, an insinuating and insidious something that elicits secrets just like love or liquor."
--Seneca 4 B.C. – 65 A.D., Spanish-born Roman Statesman, philosopher
"Conversation should be pleasant without scurrility, witty without affection, free without indecency, learned without conceitedness, novel without falsehood."
--William Shakespeare 1564-1616, British Poet, Playwright, Actor
"She has lost the art of conversation, but not, unfortunately, the power of speech."
--George Bernard Shaw 1856-1950, Irish-born British Dramatist
" A good memory and a tongue tied in the middle is a combination which gives immortality to conversation."
--Mark Twain 1835-1910, American Humorist, Writer
"There is no such thing as conversation. It is an illusion. There are intersecting monologues, that is all."
--Rebecca West 1892-1983, British Author
" It is all right to hold a conversation but you should let go of it now and then."
--Richard Armour 1906-1989, American Poet
"Anyone who conducts an argument by appealing to authority is not using his intelligence; he is just using his memory."
--Leonardo da Vinci
""It does not require many words to speak the truth."
-- Chief Joseph, Nez Perce tribe
""As I grow older, I pay less attention to what men say. I just watch what they do."
-- Andrew Carnegie
"If you have learned how to disagree without being disagreeable, then you have discovered the secret of getting along -- whether it be business, family relations, or life itself."
--Bernard Meltzer 1914-1999, American Law Professor
"So let's leave it alone 'cause we can't see eye-to-eye
There ain't no good guys, there ain't no bad guys
There's only you and me and we just disagree"
--Dave Mason, British songwriter (not dead yet, but)
"You talkin' to me!!?
--Robert DeNiro, American Actor (not dead yet, either, but)
