"The trouble with her is that she lacks the power of conversation but not the power of speech." - George Bernard Shaw

"Conversation is an art in which a man has all mankind for his competitors, for it is that which all are practicing every day while they live." - RALPH WALDO EMERSON, The Conduct of Life

"The happiest conversation is that of which nothing is distinctly remembered, but a general effect of pleasing impression." - SAMUEL JOHNSON, quoted in James Boswell's The Life of Samuel Johnson

"A gossip is one who talks to you about others; a bore is one who talks to you about himself; and a brilliant conversationalist is one who talks to you about yourself." - LISA KIRK, quoted in New York Journal-American

"Confidence contributes more to conversation than wit." - LA ROCHEFOUCAULD, Maxims

"If you can't say something good about someone, sit right here by me." - ALICE ROOSEVELT LONGWORTH, quoted in Time

"One person seeks a midwife for his thoughts; the other, someone he can assist. Here is the origin of a good conversation." - FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE, Beyond Good and Evil

"Ideal conversation must be an exchange of thought, and not, as many of those who worry most about their shortcomings believe, an eloquent exhibition of wit or oratory." - EMILY POST, Etiquette

"Conversation has a kind of charm about it, an insinuating and insidious something that elicits secrets from us just like love or liquor." - SENECA, Epistulae ad Lucilium

"No syren did ever so charm the ear of the listener, as the listening ear has charmed the soul of the syren." - HENRY TAYLOR, The Statesman

"There is no such thing as conversation. It is an illusion. There are intersecting monologues, that is all." - REBECCA WEST, There Is No Conversation