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. . . CONTEXT see: "MEANING" see "COMMUNICATION" for other related links - Whenever you tear an idea from it's context and treat it as if it were a self-sufficient, independent item, you invalidate the thought process involved. A context-dropper forgets or evades any wider context. He stares at only one element, and he thinks, 'I can change just this one point, and everything else will remain the same.' --Leonard Peikoff (1933 ) Canadian-born American philosopher. _The Philosophy of Objectivism_ - Context-dropping is one of the chief psychological tools of evasion. --Ayn Rand (19051982) Russian-born American writer. _The Virtue of Selfishness_ [1964] "I must claim the quoter's privilege of giving only as much of the text as will suit my purpose," said Tan-Chun. "If I told you how it went on, I should end up by contradicting myself!" --Ts'ao Chan [Pinyin Cao Zhan] (c.17151763) Chinese author. _Hung lou meng_ (Dream of the Red Chamber) ----- truncate (transitive verb) Forms: truncated; truncating 1 : to shorten by or as if by cutting off 2 : to replace (an edge or corner of a crystal) by a plane truncation: noun   CONTRADICTION . . see "COMMUNICATION" for related links When we risk no contradiction, It prompts the tongue to deal in fiction. --John Gay (16851732) English poet and dramatist. _Fables_, pt. 1 [1727], "The Elephant and the Bookseller" It was one of the rules which, above all others, made Doctor [Benjamin] Franklin the most amiable of men in society: never to contradict anybody. --Thomas Jefferson (17431826) American statesman and president [18011809]. In Dixon Wecter _The Hero in America: A Chronicle of Hero-Worship_ [1941]. There is an eagle in me that wants to soar and there is also a hippopotamus in me that wants to wallow in the mud. --Carl Sandburg (18781967) American poet. Do I contradict myself? Very well then I contradict myself, (I am large, I contain multitudes.) --Walt Whitman (18191892) American poet. "Song of Myself" st. 51 - "New Yorker" cartoon, publisher to author: "Come now, Mr Dickens; it must have been either the best of times or the worst of times. It could hardly have been both!" --- Look before you leap. He who hesitates is lost. If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. Don't beat your head against a stone wall. Absence makes the heart grow fonder. Out of sight, out of mind. Never put off till tomorrow what you can do today. Don't cross the bridge until you come to it. Haste makes waste. Time waits for no man. You're never too old to learn. You can't teach an old dog new tricks. A word to the wise is sufficient. Talk is cheap. It's better to be safe than sorry. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. Nothing venture, nothing gain. Fools rush in where angels fear to tread. Don't look a gift horse in the mouth. Beware of Greeks bearing gifts. Do unto others as you would have others do unto you. Nice guys finish last. Many hands make light work. Too many cooks spoil the broth. Don't judge a book by its cover. Clothes make the man. The squeaking wheel gets the grease. Silence is golden. - Cleanliness is next to godliness. Cleanliness is next to impossible. --Charlie Brown, in "Peanuts" I looked in the dictionary. "Cleanliness" is *not* next to "godliness." "Cleanliness" is between "claustrophobia" and "cleavage." --George Carlin (19372008) American stand-up comedian and author. Cleanliness is next to godliness. Godliness is perfection. Perfection is impossible. Therefore, Cleanliness is next to impossible. - Seek and ye shall find. Curiosity killed the cat. Life is what we make it. What is to be will be. Faint heart never won fair lady. The meek shall inherit the Earth. Opposites attract. Birds of a feather flock together. ----- belie (verb) [bκ-'LI] To show to be false, contradict, to misrepresent, to give a false impression of. cavil (verb) ['kζ-vκl] To object on frivolous or petty grounds, to quibble. oxymoron (noun) [ahk-see-'mo-rahn] A phrase comprising two mutually contradictory words. Examples: a long brief, the living dead, freezer burn, near miss, old news, pretty ugly, alone together, almost exactly, half naked, jumbo shrimp, holy war, rap music.  CONTRARIANS . . [Professor Wagstaff, (Groucho Marx) :] I don't know what they have to say. It makes no difference anyway. Whatever it is, I'm against it. --"Horse Feathers" [1932 movie] Screenplay by Will B. Johnstone, Bert Kalmar, S.J. Perelman, and Harry Ruby. Those who obstinately oppose the most widely-held opinions more often do so because of pride than lack of intelligence. They find the best places in the right set already taken, and they do not want back seats. --Franηois de La Rochefoucauld (16131680) French classical author. _Maxims_ [1665] To do just the opposite is also a form of imitation. --Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (17421799) German scientist and drama critic. "Notebook E", Aphorism 11 _Aphorisms_ [17751779] . . see "THE HUMAN RACE" for related links - For years the conventional wisdom in Washington said that getting rid of various welfare entitlements would result in our cities turning into new Calcuttas. It was accepted that there was nothing wrong with single motherhood. It was taken for granted that if you put people in huge public-housing complexes they will treat government-owned property with the same respect they'd treat their own. The beat droned on: The population bomb would force us to eat Soylent Green and live in dresser drawers. Global warming would melt the North Pole. From the racial bias of the SATs to the idea that gun control stops crime while prisons don't, to the always just- around-the corner triumph of the Japanese economic juggernaut, the conventional wisdom has been wrong embarrassingly wrong, lose-all-of-your-money-at- the-track-and-wash windshields-in-the-parking-lot wrong. --Jonah Goldberg (1969 ) American conservative commentator and author. -  CONVERSATION . . see "COMMUNICATION" for related links Good nature is more agreeable in conversation than wit, and gives a certain air to the countenance which is more amiable than beauty. --Joseph Addison (16721719) English essayist, poet, and dramatist. _The Spectator_, No. 169 [13 September 1711] - Debate is masculine; conversation feminine. --[Amos] Bronson Alcott (17991888) American philosopher, teacher, and reformer; father of Louisa May Alcott. Egotists cannot converse, they talk to themselves only. --[Amos] Bronson Alcott (17991888) American philosopher, teacher, and reformer; father of Louisa May Alcott. - The first requirement of a good conversation is that nobody should know what is coming next. --Havilah Babcock (18981964) American educator, author, and outdoorsman. I suppose there are now few survivors among the people who had the delight of hearing Oscar Wilde talk. Of these I am one. I have had the privilege of listening also to many other masters of table-talk Meredith and Swinburne, Edmund Gosse and Henry James, Augustine Birrell and Arthur Balfour, Gilbert Chesterton and Desmond MacCarthy and Hilaire Belloc all of them splendid in their own way. But assuredly Oscar in his way was the greatest of them all the most spontaneous and yet the most polished, the most soothing and yet the most surprising. That his talk was mostly monologue was not his own fault. His manners were very good; he was careful to give his guests or his fellow-guests many a conversational opening; but seldom did anyone respond with more than a very few words. Nobody was willing to interrupt the music of so magnificent a virtuoso. To have heard him consoles me for not having heard Dr. Johnson or Edmund Burke. --Sir Max Beerbohm (18721956) English satirist and caricaturist. When I complained of having dined at a splendid table without hearing one sentence of conversation worthy of being remembered, he said, "Sir, there seldom is any such conversation." Boswell: "Why then meet at table?" Johnson: "Why, to eat and drink together, and to promote kindness; and, Sir, this is better done when there is no solid conversation; for when there is, people differ in opinion, and get into bad humour, or some of the company who are not capable of such conversation, are left out, and feel themselves uneasy. It was for this reason, Sir Robert Walpole said, he always talked bawdy at his table, because in that all could join." --James Boswell (17401795) Scottish lawyer, diarist, and author. _Life of Samuel Johnson_ [1791] My philosophy is that true intimacy and romance always flourish at tables, not on sofas. At the table you have the best eye contact, and that's what it's all about. People push their empty plates to one side and linger longer and longer at the table. Once, people used to move from the dining table to the couch. That was disaster because all the intimacy they had built up disappeared and they had to start all over. A table is the most beautiful piece of furniture there is. --Jan des Bouvrie (1942 ) Dutch interior designer. People may forget what you said, but they will never forget how you made them feel. --Carl W. Buechner One could take down a book from a shelf ten tines more wise and witty than almost any man's conversation. Bacon is wiser, Swift more humorous than any person one is likely to meet with; but they cannot chime in with the exact frame of thought in which we happen to take them down from our shelves. Therein lies the luxury of conversation: and when a living speaker does not yield us that luxury, he becomes only a book on two legs. --Thomas Campbell (17771844) Scottish poet. I don't like to talk much with people who always agree with me. It is amusing to coquette with an echo for a little while, but one soon tires of it. --Thomas Carlyle (17951881) Scottish historian and political philosopher. - Some men are very entertaining for a first interview, but after that they are exhausted, and run out; on a second meeting we shall find them flat and monotonous; like hand-organs, we have heard all their tunes. --C.C. Colton (17801832) English clergyman and writer. When we are in the company of sensible men, we ought to be doubly cautious of talking too much, lest we lose two good things, their good opinion and our own improvement; for what we have to say we know, but what they have to say we know not. --C.C. Colton (17801832) English clergyman and writer. - - Variety's the very spice of life, That gives it all its flavor. --William Cowper (17311800) English poet and hymnodist. "The Task" Discourse may want an animated "No" To brush the surface, and to make it flow; But still remember, if you mean to please, To press your point with modesty and ease. --William Cowper (17311800) English poet and hymnodist. _Conversation_, l. 101 - To do all the talking and not be willing to listen is a form of greed. --Democritus of Abdera (c. 460 B.C.c. 370 B.C.) Greek philosopher. The reading of all good books is like a conversation with the finest men of past centuries. --Renι Descartes (15961650) French philosopher and mathematician. _Discours de la mιthode_ [1637] (Discourse on Method) I see people in terms of dialogue and I believe that people are their talk. --Roddy Doyle (1958 ) Irish novelist. In John Ardagh _Ireland and the Irish_ [1994]. Gentlemen; when you *come down* to common-place small-talk with an intelligent lady, one of two things is the consequence; she either recognizes the condescension and despises you, or else she accepts it as the highest intellectual effort of which you are capable, and rates you accordingly. --Mrs E.B. Duffey, in _The Ladies' and Gentlemen's Etiquette_ (1877) If you have anything to tell me of importance, for God's sake begin at the end. --Sara Jeannette Duncan (18611922) Camadian journalist and essayist. _The Imperialist_ - The music that can deepest reach, And cure all ill, is cordial speech. --Ralph Waldo Emerson (18031882) American philosopher and poet. "Considerations by the Way" _The Conduct of Life_ [1860] Wise, cultivated, genial conversation is the last flower of civilization. . . . Conversation is our account of ourselves. --Ralph Waldo Emerson (18031882) American philosopher and poet. "Woman", _Miscellanies_ [1884] Two may talk and one may hear, but three cannot take part in a conversation of the most sincere and searching sort. --Ralph Waldo Emerson (18031882) American philosopher and poet. _Essays_ [1841] "Friendship" - Don't keep jingling in the course of your conversation any intellectual money you may have. --Joseph Farrell How time flies when you's doin' all the talking. --Harvey Fierstein (1954 ) American dramatist and actor. _Torch Song Trilogy_ [1979] He and Evie soon fell into a conversation of the 'No, I didn't; yes, you did' type conversation which, though fascinating to those who are engaged in it, neither desires nor deserves the attention of others. --E.M. [Edward Morgan] Forster (18791970) English novelist. _Howards End_ [1910] Whenever you have truth it must be given with love, or the message and the messenger will be rejected. --Mohandas K. Gandhi (18691948) Indian statesman and leader of the nationalistic movement against British rule. My tongue within my lips I rein; For who talks much must talk in vain. --John Gay (16851732) English poet and dramatist. _Fables_, pt. 1 [1727] Conversation enriches the understanding, but solitude is the school of genius. --Edward Gibbon (17371794) English historian. Our companions please us less from the charms we find in their conversation than from those they find in ours. --Fulke Greville (15541628) English philosophical poet. One has to grow up with good talk in order to form the habit of it. --Helen Hayes (19001993) One of the most popular American stage actresses of the 20th century. With Lewis Funke, _A Gift of Joy_ [1965]. Conversation is the enemy of good wine and food. --Alfred Hitchcock (18991980) British-born film director. _Time_ [October 9, 1978] - Talking is one of the fine arts--the noblest, the most important, the most difficult--and its fluent harmonies may be spoiled by the intrusion of a single harsh note. --Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (18091894) American physician, poet, and essayist. _The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table_ [1858] Speak clearly, if you speak at all; Carve every word before you let it fall. . . . And when you stick on conversation's burrs, Don't strew your pathway with those dreadful *urs*. --Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (18091894) American physician, poet, and essayist. "A Rhymed Lesson" [1846] It is the province of knowledge to speak and it is the privilege of wisdom to listen. --Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (18091894) American physician, poet, and essayist. _The Poet at the Breakfast-Table_ [1872] - Two simple words are the key to kicking off conversations: "Tell me." Most people ask closed questions that already contain the answer. This relegates the other person to confirming or denying what you just said. "Did you have fun at the dance?" "Yeah." "Did you enjoy the ball game?" "It was okay." End of conversation. "Tell me"--as in "Tell me about the dance"--gives people a hook on which to hang a conversation. --Sam Horn, _Concrete Confidence_ Nothing lowers the level of conversation more than raising the voice. --Stanley Horowitz Don't take up a man's time talking about the smartness of your children; he wants to talk to you about the smartness of his children. --Edgar Watson Howe (18541937) American journalist and author. Don't knock the weather. If it didn't change once in a while, nine out of ten people couldn't start a conversation. --Frank McKinney (Kin) Hubbard (18681930) American humorist. If you are ever at a loss to support a flagging conversation, introduce the subject of eating. --Leigh [James Henry] Hunt (17841859) English essayist, critic, journalist, and poet. - It is not sufficiently considered, that men more frequently require to be reminded than informed. --Samuel Johnson (17091784) English poet, critic, and lexicographer. _The Rambler_ [17501752] I never desire to converse with a man who has written more than he has read. --Samuel Johnson (17091784) English poet, critic, and lexicographer. In James Boswell _The Life of Samuel Johnson_ [1791] There is nothing by which a man exasperates most people more, than by displaying a superior ability or brilliancy in conversation. They seem pleased at the time; but their envy makes them curse him in their hearts. --Samuel Johnson (17091784) English poet, critic, and lexicographer. In James Boswell's _The Life of Samuel Johnson_ [1791], "1783". - - As it is the characteristic of great wits to say much in few words, so it is of small wits to talk much and say nothing. --Franηois de La Rochefoucauld (16131680) French classical author. One thing which makes us find so few people who appear reasonable and agreeable in conversation is, that there is scarcely any one who does not think more of what he is about to say than of answering precisely what is said to him. --Franηois de La Rochefoucauld (16131680) French classical author. - A single conversation across the table with a wise man is better than ten years' study of books. --Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (18071882) American poet. A translation of a Chinese proverb in _Hyperion_ [1839] Some people have a way with words. Other people ... not have way. --Steve Martin (1945 ) American comedian and actor. - She plunged into a sea of platitudes, and with the powerful breast stroke of a channel swimmer made her confident way towards the white cliffs of the obvious. --W. Somerset Maugham (18741965) English novelist, playwright, and short-story writer. _A Writer's Notebook_ [1949] I do not want to spend too long a time with boring people, but then I do not want to spend too long a time with amusing ones. I find social intercourse fatiguing. Most persons, I think, are both exhilarated and rested by conversation; to me it has always been an effort. When I was young and stammered badly, to talk for long singularly exhausted me, and even now that I have to some extent cured myself, it is a strain. It is a relief to me when I can get away and read a book. --W. Somerset Maugham (18741965) English novelist, playwright, and short-story writer. _The Summing Up_ [1938], Chapter XIX - {of the French salon} Salon culture, it needs to be stressed, was a meritocracy. Madame Geoffrin, a great salonniθre, would not let her husband participate in her salon because she thought that he was not up to the mark. Monsieur Geoffrin, it was said by one salon-goer, "was permitted to sit down to dinner, at the end of the table, upon condition that he never attempted to join in the conversation." --Stephen Miller in the WSJ [13 May 2005] reviewing Benedetta Craveri's _The Age of Conversation_ Her journalism, like a diamond, will sparkle more if it is cut. --Raymond Mortimer (18951980) English writer and critic. (Of Susan Sontag.) The newest computer can merely compound, at speed, the oldest problem in the relations between human beings, and in the end the communicator will be confronted with the old problem, of what to say and how to say it. --Edward R. Murrow [Egbert Roscoe Murrow] (19081965) American broadcaster and journalist. Upon receiving the "Family of Man" Award in 1964. When one told Plistarchus that a notorious railer spoke well of him, "I'll lay my life," said he, "somebody hath told him I am dead, for he can speak well of no man living." --Plutarch (A.D. 46?119?) Greek philosopher and biographer. _Laconic Apophthegms_, "Of Plistarchus" That character in conversation which commonly passes for agreeable is made up of civility and falsehood. --Alexander Pope (16881744) English poet. Ideal conversation must be an exchange of thought, and not, as many of those who worry about their shortcomings believe, an eloquent exhibition of wit or oratory. --Emily Post (18731960) American authority on social behavior. In _The Book of Positive Quotations_, {comp. by John Cook}, p. 246 [2007]. 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 (18281896) English journalist and illustrator. I am not bound to please thee with my answer. --William Shakespeare (15641616) English dramatist. "The Merchant of Venice" [15961598] I often quote myself; it adds spice to my conversation. --George Bernard Shaw (18561950) Irish comic dramatist, literary critic, Socialist propagandist, and winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1925 [he didn't accept it.] in _New York Times_ [7 January 1988], "As Someone Famous Probably Once Said. . . ." - That's as well said as if I had said it myself. --Jonathan Swift (16671745) Anglo-Irish poet and satirist. _Polite Conversation_ [1738] The character in conversation which commonly passes for agreeable is made up of civility and falsehood. --Jonathan Swift (16671745) Anglo-Irish poet and satirist. - - The most influential of all educational factors is the conversation in a child's home. --Sir William Temple (16281699) English statesman and diplomat. In conversation, humor is more than wit, easiness more than knowledge; few desire to learn, or think they need it; all desire to be pleased, or, at least, to be easy. --Sir William Temple (16281699) English statesman and diplomat. - In fact, nothing is said that has not been said before. --Terence [Publius Terentius Afer] (c. 190159 BC) Roman comic dramatist. _Eunuchus_, line 41 (Prologue) Adam was the only man who, when he said a good thing, knew that nobody had said it before him. --Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (18351910) American humorist, novelist, journalist, and river pilot. The secret of being a bore is to tell everything. --Voltaire (Franηois Marie Arouet) (16941778) French writer and philosopher. _Sept discours en vers sur l'homme_ [1738] Ultimately the bond of all companionship, whether in marriage or in friendship, is conversation. --Oscar Wilde (18541900) Anglo-Irish dramatist and poet. _De Profundis_ ----- badinage [bad-n-AHZH], noun: Light, playful talk; banter. confabulation kon-FAB-yuh-lay-shuhn, noun: Familiar talk; easy, unrestrained, unceremonious conversation. deipnosophist dyp-NOS-uh-fist, noun: Someone who is skilled in table talk. felicitous fuh-LIS-uh-tuhs, adjective: 1. Well suited or expressed; appropriate; apt. 2. Pleasant; delightful; marked by happiness or good fortune. Ex.: I always have a pad of paper and a pencil within reach, to catch on the wing this turn of phrase which strikes me as felicitous, that idea which I hope to be able to examine more closely in the light of day. --Roger Martin du Gard, _Lieutenant-Colonel de Maumort_ (translated by Timothy Crouse) glib [adj. GLIB] Casual, relaxed, offhand, with a natural feeling. However, the word often carries an unspoken implication that the easy manner is a way of hiding something. implicit (adj.) Implied: not stated, but understood in what is expressed imply (verb) [im-'plI] To indicate by necessary entailment rather than a direct statement; to occur as a logical consequence, as a garage implies ownership of an automobile. It is the antonym of infer; the speaker implies, the listener infers. interlocutor [in-ter-LOK-yuh-ter], noun: Someone who takes part in a conversation, often formally or officially. persiflage (noun) ['pκr-sκ-flahzh] Light, sociable chatter or a superficial, sociable manner of speaking. raillery [RAY-luh-ree] noun: 1. Good-humored banter or teasing. 2. An instance of good-humored teasing; a jest. repartee (noun) Witty talk: conversation consisting of witty remarks riposte ih-POST, noun: 1. A quick thrust given after parrying an opponent's lunge in fencing. 2. A quick and effective reply by word or act. end page | CALAMITIES - CALM | CALUMNY - CANADA | CANCER - CAN'T WIN | CAPITALISM | CAREFREE - CARPE DIEM | CARTER (JIMMY) - CATS & DOGS | CAUSES AND CONSEQUENCES - CENSORSHIP | CERTAINTY - CHANGE | CHANGING (ONE'S MIND) & CHANGING TIMES | CHARACTER | CHARACTER ASSASINATION - CHEERFULNESS | CHEER UP! - CHILDHOOD | CHILDREN | CHILDREN'S RHYME | CHILE & CHINA | CHOCOLATE - CHRISTIANITY | CHRISTMAS | CHURCH - CIGARS | CIRCUMSTANCES & CITIES | CIVILITY - CIVIL RIGHTS | CLARITY - CLICHES | CLOTHES - COFFEE | COLD - COLORS | COMEDY | COMFORT - COMMON SENSE | COMMUNICATION | COMMUNISM | COMPANIONSHIP - COMPASSION | COMPETITION - COMPLIMENTS | COMPOSERS - CONDUCTORS | CONFESSION - CONQUEST | CONSCIENCE - CONTENTED | CONTEXT - CONVERSATION | CONVICTION & COOKING | COOLIDGE - CORPORATIONS | CORRECTING - COURAGE | COURT - COWS | CREATIVITY - CRIME | CRIME & PUNISHMENT - CROOKS | CRITICISM & CRITICS | CROWD (THE) - CUBA | CULTURE - CYNICS | | A | B | C | D | E | F | G | | Return Home | The Credits | The Cast | Act 1 | Act 2 | Act 3 | The End | The Reviews | Photos | |
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