Discourse Quotes

• There is frequently more to be learned from the unexpected questions of a child than the discourses of men.

  John Locke

  Children, Philosophical, Men

  John Locke, Ruth Weissbourd Grant, Nathan Tarcov (1996). “Some Thoughts Concerning Education: And, Of the Conduct of the Understanding”, Hackett Publishing

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• Reading makes a full man, meditation a profound man, discourse a clear man.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Book, Reading, Knowledge

  Benjamin Franklin (2008). “The Way to Wealth and Poor Richard's Almanac”, Nayika Publishing

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• But at a time when our discourse has become so sharply polarized - at a time when we are far too eager to lay the blame for all that ails the world at the feet of those who think differently than we do - it's important for us to pause for a moment and make sure that we are talking with each other in a way that heals, not a way that wounds.

  Barack Obama

  Thinking, Talking, Feet

  Speech at the 'Together We Thrive: Tucson and America' Memorial, delivered 12 January 2011, McKale Memorial Center, University of Arizona, Tucson

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• Good as is discourse, silence is better and shames it.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Silence, Shame, Silence Is

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson (Illustrated)”, p.1387, Delphi Classics

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• Where wise actions are the fruit of life, wise discourse is the pollination.

  Bryant H. McGill

  Wise, Literature, Fruit

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• Let your Discourse with Men of Business be Short and Comprehensive.

  George Washington

  Attitude, Business, 4th Of July

  George Washington (1871). “Words of Washington”, p.8

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• Literature is my Utopia. Here I am not disenfranchised. No barrier of the senses shuts me out from the sweet, gracious discourse of my book friends. They talk to me without embarrassment or awkwardness.

  Helen Keller

  Friendship, Sweet, Book

  "The Story of My Life" by Helen Keller, (Ch. 21), 1903.

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• Contention is inseparable from creating knowledge. It is not contention we should try to avoid, but discourses that attempt to suppress contention.

  Joyce Appleby

  Creating, Trying, Should

  Joyce Appleby (2007). “A Restless Past: History and the American Public”, p.106, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

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• I'm not shy about heated debate or passionate discourse, but when people get crazy or rude, that's a buzz kill. There's got to be a better code of conduct, some basic etiquette.

  Mos Def

  Crazy, People, Rude

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• Discourse, the sweeter banquet of the mind.

  Homer

  Mind, Banquets

  Homer, John Selby WATSON (1858). “The Odyssey of Homer; Translated by Alexander Pope. To which are Added the Battle of the Frogs and Mice by Parnell; and the Hymns by Chapman and Others. With Observations and Brief Notes by the Rev. J. S. Watson ... Illustrated with the Entire Series of Flaxman's Designs”, p.251

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• It was the first and most striking characteristic of Socrates never to become heated in discourse, never to utter an injurious or insulting word -- on the contrary, he persistently bore insult from others and thus put an end to the fray.

  Epictetus

  Insulting, Firsts, Characteristics

  Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius, Lucius Annaeus Seneca (2016). “Stoic Six Pack: Meditations of Marcus Aurelius, Golden Sayings, Fragments and Discourses of Epictetus, Letters from a Stoic and The Enchiridion”, p.64, Enhanced Media Publishing

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• There cannot be greater rudeness than to interrupt another in the current of his discourse.

  John Locke

  Communication, Rude, Currents

  John Locke (1824). “The Works of John Locke: Some thoughts concerning education. An examination of P. Malebranche's opinion of seeing all things in God. A discourse of miracles. Memoirs relating to the life of Anthony, first earl of Shaftesbury. Some familiar letters between Mr. Locke and several of his friends”, p.139

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• The lover`s discourse was of an extreme solitude. The solitude was extreme because it wasn`t physical. It was extreme because you felt it while in the company of the person you loved. It was extreme because it was in your head, the most solitary of places.

  Jeffrey Eugenides

  Solitude, Lovers, Solitary

  Jeffrey Eugenides (2011). “The Marriage Plot: A Novel”, p.65, Macmillan

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• We suffer from a terrible poverty of civic discourse in this country. Surely, it is outside of America's best traditions to send the signal that patriotism is mindless emotion, that leadership is avoiding saying tough things, that citizenship is toeing the line. But such is the result of a lack of openness, our nervousness with debate.

  Geneva Overholser

  Country, America, Suffering

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• Discourse on virtue and they pass by in droves. Whistle and dance the shimmy, and you've got an audience.

  Diogenes

  Dance, Dancing, Virtue

  Herakleitos, Diogenes (2011). “Herakleitos and Diogenes: Translated from the Greek by Guy Davenport”, p.56, Wipf and Stock Publishers

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• It is still possible to have friendly discourse in America, as long as you don't bring up any subject.

  Robert Breault

  America, Long, Friendly

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• The domestic NSA-led Surveillance State which Frank Church so stridently warned about has obviously come to fruition. The way to avoid its grip is simply to acquiesce to the nation's most powerful factions, to obediently remain within the permitted boundaries of political discourse and activism. Accepting that bargain enables one to maintain the delusion of freedom - "he who does not move does not notice his chains," observed Rosa Luxemburg - but the true measure of political liberty is whether one is free to make a different choice.

  Glenn Greenwald

  Powerful, Moving, Nsa

  "Surveillance State evils". www.salon.com. April 21, 2012.

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• Discourse is fleeting, but junk mail is forever.

  Joe Bob Briggs

  Forever, Junk, Fleeting

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• A good discourse is that from which nothing can be retrenched without cutting into the quick.

  Saint Francis de Sales

  Cutting

  Letter upon Eloquence,

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• I call the discourse of power any discourse that engenders blame, hence guilt, in its recipient.

  Roland Barthes

  Power, Guilt, Blame

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• The failures of the press have contributed immensely to the emergence of a talk-show nation, in which public discourse is reduced to ranting and raving and posturing. We now have a mainstream press whose news agenda is increasingly influenced by this netherworld.

  Carl Bernstein

  News, Agendas, Mainstream

  "The idiot culture". Carl Bernstein, The New Republic, June 8, 1992.

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• As I say, I'm a discourse advocate. What form it comes is less important to me than the fact that there is discourse.

  Jim Lehrer

  Important, Facts, Advocating

  "Jim Lehrer on Billy Bob, Reports of Rain and Stenography As Journalism". Interview with Liz Cox Barrett, www.cjr.org. June 2, 2006.

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• The first duty of a lecturer: to hand you after an hour's discourse a nugget of pure truth to wrap up between the pages of your notebooks, and keep on the mantelpiece forever.

  Virginia Woolf

  Notebook, Teacher, Women

  Virginia Woolf (2007). “Selected Works of Virginia Woolf”, p.565, Wordsworth Editions

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• I grew up in the sort of cultural milieu that always regarded conversations about the political discourse as tremendously low-brow.

  Joseph Brodsky

  Political, Grew Up, Lows

  "Joseph Brodsky's Art of Darkness". www.washingtonpost.com. October 23, 1987.

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• A kind
  Of excellent dumb discourse.

  William Shakespeare

  Memorable, Dumb, Kind

  William Shakespeare (1765). “The plays: of William Shakespeare, in eight volumes, with the corrections and illustrations of various commentators; to which are added notes by Sam. Johnson”, p.58

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