It is a wonderful thing that so many, and they not reckoned absurd, shall entertain those with whom they converse by giving them the history of their pains and aches and imagine such narrations their quota of conversation.

Is there anything more terrible than a "call"? It affords an occasion for the exchange of the most threadbare commonplaces. Calls and the theatre are the two great centers for the propagation of platitudes.

That talk must be very well in hand and under great headway, that an anecdote thrown in front of will not pitch off the track and wreck.

Beware the conversationalist who adds, 'In other words.' He is merely starting afresh.

No animal should ever jump up on the dining room furniture unless absolutely certain that he can hold his own in the conversation.

She was not a woman of many words; for, unlike people in general, she proportioned them to the number of her ideas.

It appears that even the different parts of the same person do not converse among themselves, do not succeed in learning from each other what are their desires and their intentions.

One way to prevent conversation from being boring is to say the wrong thing.

Education begins a gentleman, conversation completes him.

Please, Lord, fill my mouth with worthwhile stuff, and nudge me when I've said enough.