17 Quotes About Communication

Communication is the activity of conveying, receiving and exchanging information, as by speech, visuals, signals, writing or behavior.

We all think that we know how to communicate, and that we're always communicating effectively. But we so often forget that real communication between two parties - not just talking at a person or listening to someone - requires actually sharing information in such a way that both the message conveyor and the message receiver understand what is being said.

While that may seem simple, it's far too often easier said than done.

Let's face it, if I had a special secret for making sure you are instantly understood by others, or how to automatically understand everyone who communicates with you, I'd be a millionaire and this blog would have a more precise focus. But I don't, so instead, I have put together a collection of 17 inspirational quotes from some great minds that may have been on to something.

"First learn the meaning of what you say, and then speak." ~ Epictetus

"Grammar is the logic of speech, even as logic is the grammar of reason." ~ Richard Chenevix Trench

"Genius is the ability to put into effect what is on your mind." ~ F. Scott Fitzgerald

"Good communication is just as stimulating as black coffee, and just as hard to sleep after." ~ Anne Morrow Lindbergh

"The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak." ~ Hans Hofmann

"There is only one rule for being a good talker - learn to listen." ~ Christopher Morley

"A word to the wise is infuriating." ~ Hunter S. Thompson

"The liberty of speaking and writing guards our other liberties." ~ Thomas Jefferson

"The most important things are the hardest to say, because words diminish them." ~ Stephen King

"Music . . . can name the unnameable and communicate the unknowable." ~ Leonard Bernstein

"The tongue is the only instrument that gets sharper with use." ~ Washington Irving

"Speak when you are angry - and you'll make the best speech you'll ever regret." ~ Dr. Laurence J. Peter

"The less people know, the more they yell." ~ Seth Godin

"If I am to speak ten minutes, I need a week for preparation; if fifteen minutes, three days; if half an hour, two days; if an hour, I am ready now." ~ Woodrow Wilson

"The mouth is made for communication, and nothing is more articulate than a kiss." ~ Jarod Kintz

"The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place." ~ George Bernard Shaw 

"If you have nothing to say, say nothing." ~ Mark Twain