A conversation is a dialogue, not a monologue. That's why there are so few good conversations: due to scarcity, two intelligent talkers seldom meet. — Truman Capote
Intelligent people tend to talk about the facts. They don’t sit around and call each other names. That’s what you can find on a third-grade playground. — Benjamin Carson
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
Good conversation turns me on. A connection between two people, a mental one first. — Brian Molko
Intelligent men have no need to listen to much talk, but should attend only to that which is profitable and guided by God's will. — Anthony the Great
The intelligent man is never bored. — Isaac Asimov
Conversation in its true meaning isn't all wagging the tongue; sometimes it is a deeply shared silence. — Robertson Davies
I like intelligent women. When you go out, it shouldn't be a staring contest. — Frank Sinatra
The first ingredient in conversation is truth, the next good sense, the third good humor, and the fourth wit. — Sir William Temple
An intelligent woman is a woman with whom one can be as stupid as one wants. — Paul Valery
The length of a conversation don’t tell nothing about the size of the intellect. — American Proverbs
Intelligence is the ultimate aphrodisiac — Timothy Leary
I like on the table, when we're speaking, the light of a bottle of intelligent wine. — Pablo Neruda
It is not what we learn in conversation that enriches us. It is the elation that comes of swift contact with tingling currents of thought. — Agnes Repplier
Having a good discussion is like having riches. — African Proverbs
Short Intelligent Conversation Quotes
A single conversation across the table with a wise man is better than ten years mere study of books. — Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Conversation, like certain portions of the anatomy, always runs more smoothly when lubricated. — Marquis De Sade
In conversation, humor is worth more than wit and easiness more than knowledge. — George Herbert
Poor minds talk about people average minds talk about events great minds talk about ideas — Eleanor Roosevelt
An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools. — Ernest Hemingway
The way I think I should stay out of trouble is by stayin' busy. With idle time comes a lot of biz, so the more my work load is heavy, I'll have no time to get into any trouble or makin' dis tracks or get into conversation about any other rappers. — Gucci Mane
Self-control is strength. Calmness is mastery. You have to get to a point where your mood doesn't shift based on the insignificant actions of someone else. Don't allow others to control the direction of your life. Don't allow your emotions to overpower your intelligence.
Prayer is spiritual communication between man and God, a two-way relationship in which man should not only talk to God but also listen to Him. Prayer to God is like a child's conversation with his father. It is natural for a child to ask his father for the things he needs. — Billy Graham
We are too busy to pray, and so we are too busy to have power. We have a great deal of activity, but we accomplish little; many services but few conversions; much machinery but few results. — R. A. Torrey
The lifting up of the woman does not require the tearing down of the man. In fact, a strong woman appreciates a strong man. Conversely, a strong man is not intimidated by a strong woman. — T. D. Jakes
Conversant Quotes
The stronger person is not the one making the most noise but the one who can quietly direct the conversation toward defining and solving problems. — Aaron T. Beck
A good local pub has much in common with a church, except that a pub is warmer, and there's more conversation. — William Blake
Should we not press it home upon our consciences that the sole object of our conversion was not the salvation of our own souls, but that we might become co-workers with our Lord and Master in the conversion of the world? — Lottie Moon
The problem with the world is that the intelligent people are full of doubts while the stupid ones are full of confidence.
The most holy and necessary practice in our spiritual life is the presence of God. That means finding constant pleasure in His divine company, speaking humbly and lovingly with him in all seasons, at every moment, without limiting the conversation in any way. — Brother Lawrence
The purpose of relationship is not to have another who might complete you, but to have another with whom you might share your completeness. — Neale Donald Walsch
Very great change starts from very small conversations, held among people who care. — Margaret J. Wheatley
I would like to be known as an intelligent woman, a courageous woman, a loving woman, a woman who teaches by being.
After the conversations about Indian philosophy, some of the ideas of Quantum Physics that had seemed so crazy suddenly made much more sense. — Werner Heisenberg
You have to enjoy life. Always be surrounded by people that you like, people who have a nice conversation. There are so many positive things to think about. — Sophia Loren
I have abandoned all particular forms of devotion, all prayer techniques. My only prayer practice is attention. I carry on a habitual, silent, and secret conversation with God that fills me with overwhelming joy. — Brother Lawrence
The only conversion involved in Vipassana is from misery to happiness, from bondage to liberation. — S. N. Goenka
Conversation Quotes
A man's character may be learned from the adjectives which he habitually uses in conversation. — Mark Twain
Spiritual people are not those who engage in certain spiritual practices; they are those who draw their life from a conversational relationship with God. — Dallas Willard
There's no greater lifestyle and no greater happiness than that of having a continual conversation with God. — Brother Lawrence
Knowledge is having the right answer. Intelligence is asking the right questions.
It seems probable that once the machine thinking method had started, it would not take long to outstrip our feeble powers… They would be able to converse with each other to sharpen their wits. At some stage therefore, we should have to expect the machines to take control. — Alan Turing
The deepest secret is that life is not a process of discovery, but a process of creation. You are not discovering yourself, but creating yourself anew. Seek therefore, not to find out Who You Are, but seek to determine Who You Want to Be. — Neale Donald Walsch
Daring greatly means the courage to be vulnerable. It means to show up and be seen. To ask for what you need. To talk about how you're feeling. To have the hard conversations. — Brené Brown
Knowing others is intelligence, knowing yourself is true wisdom.
It's time we become comfortable with the uncomfortable conversations about race...Instead of being color blind, we need to be color brave. — Mellody Hobson
People go through three conversions: The conversion of their head, their heart, and their pocketbook. Unfortunately, not all at the same time. — Martin Luther
We are talking only to ourselves. We are not talking to the rivers, we are not listening to the wind and stars. We have broken the great conversation. By breaking that conversation we have shattered the universe. All the disasters that are happening now are a consequence of that spiritual 'autism.' — Thomas Berry
Out of anger comes controversy, out of controversy comes conversation, out of conversation comes action. — Tupac Shakur
Put down the weight of your aloneness and ease into the conversation. Pay attention to everything in the world as if it's alive. Realize everything has its own discrete existence outside your story. By doing this, you open to gifts and lessons that the world has to give you. — David Whyte
People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices. — Adam Smith
Intelligence is knowing the right answer. Wisdom is knowing when to say it.
Conversion is a complete surrender to Jesus. It's a willingness to do what he wants you to do. — Billy Sunday
I just use my muscles as a conversation piece, like someone walking a cheetah down 42nd Street. — Arnold Schwarzenegger
The conversational overachiever is someone whose grasp exceeds his reach. This is possible but not attractive. — Fran Lebowitz
He who knows all the answers has not been asked all the questions.
The main goal of divine Providence in [allowing] the discovery of these tribes and lands . . . is . . . the conversion and well-being of souls, and to this goal everything temporal must necessarily be subordinated and directed. — Bartolome de las Casas
Did a Magdalene, a Paul, a Constantine, an Augustine become mountains of ice after their conversion? Quite the contrary. We should never have had these prodigies of conversion and marvelous holiness if they had not changed the flames of human passion into volcanoes of immense love of God. — Frances Xavier Cabrini
I tried to groan, Help! Help! But the tone that came out was that of polite conversation. — Samuel Beckett
It is critical that parents and other trusted adults initiate conversations with kids about underage drinking well in advance of the first time they are faced with a decision regarding alcohol. — Xavier Becerra
When the topic of food comes up in conversation with family, friends or casual acquaintances, it’s fascinating to hear the litany of rationalizations, knee-jerk defense mechanisms, self-limiting belief statements and general confusion or ignorance from otherwise intelligent folks when it comes to eating healthfully. But then again, Conventional Wisdom has often led even the best and brightest minds in nutritional science astray. — Mark Sisson
The balcony is a metaphor for a mental and emotional place of perspective, calm, and self-control. If life is a stage and we are all actors on that stage, then the balcony is a place from which we can see the entire play unfolding with greater clarity. To observe ourselves, it is valuable to go to the balcony at all times, and especially before, during, and after any problematic conversation or negotiation. — William Ury
Men and women range themselves into three classes or orders of intelligence; you can tell the lowest class by their habit of always talking about persons; the next by the fact that their habit is always to converse about things; the highest by their preference for the discussion of ideas. — Henry Thomas Buckle
Bore: one who has the power of speech but not the capacity for conversation. — Benjamin Disraeli
When you know your strength, you can turn any disadvantage into an advantage.
The English historian Henry Thomas Buckle famously remarked: 'Men and women range themselves into three classes or orders of intelligence; you can tell the lowest class by their habit of always talking about persons; the next by the fact that their habit is always to converse about things; the highest, by their preference for the discussion of ideas.' — Gad Saad
Love casts out fear; but conversely fear casts out love. And not only love. Fear also casts out intelligence, casts out goodness, casts out all thought of beauty and truth. — Aldous Huxley
My misfortune is doubly painful to me because it will result in my being misunderstood. For me there can be no recreation in the company of others, no intelligent conversation, no exchange of information with peers; only the most pressing needs can make me venture into society. I am obliged to live like an outcast. — Ludwig van Beethoven
I was introduced to Mr. Davy, who has rooms adjoining mine (in the Royal Institution); he is a very agreeable and intelligent young man, and we have interesting conversation in an evening; the principal failing in his character as a philosopher is that he does not smoke. — John Dalton
We owe to one another all the wit and good humour we can command; and nothing so clears our mental vistas as sympathetic and intelligent conversation. — Agnes Repplier
If the minds of women were enlightened and improved, the domestic work would be more frequently refreshed by intelligent conversation, a means of edification now deplorably neglected, for want of that cultivation which these intellectual advantages would confer. — Sarah Moore Grimke
Surely she had endured enough for one evening without having to listen to intelligent conversation? — Stella Gibbons
Learning to speak, therefore, and the power it brings of intelligent converse with others, is a most impressive further step along the path of independence ... Learning to walk is especially significant, not only because it is supremely complex, but because it is done in the first year of life. — Maria Montessori
You cannot have 300-some million Americans - and really, right, the global citizenry be at risk of having their phone conversations intercepted with a known flaw, simply because some intelligence agencies might get some data. That is not acceptable. — Ted Lieu
The great charm of conversation consists less in the display of one's own wit and intelligence than in the power to draw forth the resources of others. — Jean De La Bruyere
All the inane, meaningless noises people make that pass for intelligent conversation. They might as well be pigs grunting in the pen. (92) — Norma Fox Mazer
For instance, on the planet Earth, man had always assumed that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so much—the wheel, New York, wars and so on—whilst all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in the water having a good time. But conversely, the dolphins had always believed that they were far more intelligent than man—for precisely the same reasons. — Douglas Adams
Intelligent people, as some say, in their openness, are indeed slow to criticize, but conversely, in their openness to the concerns of others, the genuine are slow to fret about being criticized. — Criss Jami
For instance, on the planet Earth, man had always assumed that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so much--the wheel, New York, wars and so on--while all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in the water having a good time. But conversely, the dolphins had always believed that they were far more intelligent than man--for precisely the same reasons. — Douglas Adams
That machines will surpass us in intelligence is inevitable. What it means is unknowable. Will they be sentient? What will they care about in the sense that determines our human motivations? All the theorizing by the experts and non-experts makes for interesting conversations and dramatic headlines, but it's more likely we will be surprised by how our technology develops and how it is used, as we so often are. — Garry Kasparov
Conversational intelligence is hard-wired into every single human-being's cells. It's the way the cells engage with each other. Believe it or not, cells talk to each other. The immune system talks to the cells. — Judith E. Glaser
I barely got out of school, I got out of school, mainly, because I was a champ, and I actually didn't pass. I won't name the teachers that put me through, but I want. If I was not a Muslim, or a follower of the Honorable Elijah Mohammed I couldn't talk to somebody for two minutes. I believe I can hold my own as an intelligent conversation, but it all come from the Honorable Elijah Mohammed. — Muhammad Ali
I've been waiting years to have a conversation with Franchesa [Ramsey]! She's so funny and wicked smart. So that's really going to be the experience it's going to intelligent, layered, and hilarious. — Michaela Angela Davis
What I can't do is have an intelligent conversation with [George Stephanopoulos] about a report in "The New York Times" that is unnamed, inconclusive, and based on something that isn't true. — Reince Priebus
I don't know who did the hacking [through president election 2016]. The article is based on a lie that the R.N.C. was hacked. So the entire premise of the article is false. The sources are unnamed. And the report was inconclusive.The point is, though, we need to find out more facts about this situation. Then we can make intelligent decisions later, and you and I can have more intelligent conversation about what to do about it. — Reince Priebus
I pray everyday, all the time. Prayer is when you are actually experiencing a conversation with divine intelligence. — John Assaraf
As a matter of fact, that was a bit of a problem for me at the beginning of my career - the problem of identification. In The Conversation I played a character who was gay, so nobody recognised me from American Graffiti. When I did Apocalypse Now, after Star Wars, I played an intelligence officer of the American army. George Lucas saw the footage I had done and didn't recognise me until halfway through the scene. — Harrison Ford
It is possible to live the Christian life just on the surface, knowing only enough to carry on an intelligent conversation in the church foyer with another equally uninformed believer, but when that happens you are vulnerable to the attack of the deceiver. — David Jeremiah
I feel like one can have all of that as a writer; you're writing, you're reading, you're talking to interesting and intelligent people. Your life is structured around whatever book you're writing, and so is your reading and so are many of your conversations. — Sheila Heti
Life is very narrow. Bring any club or company of intelligent men together again after ten years, and if the presence of some penetrating and calming genius could dispose them to frankness, what a confession of insanities would come up! — Ralph Waldo Emerson
I've worked with multiple directors throughout the 'Saw' series with a lot of conversations as they bring their particular installment to the screen. If I've been able to do anything throughout the course of these films, it's been to help shape dialogue and to try to make things as delicate and as intelligent as I can. — Tobin Bell
Barbershop conversations are irrefutable proof that heads exist for the sake of hair. — Karl Kraus
The inquirer after holiness should associate with those whose intelligence will instruct him; whose example will guide him; whose conversation will inspire him; whose cautions will warn him. — John Angell James
All my life I've been looking for someone intelligent to talk to. — Susan Sontag
Conversation in its happiest development is a link, equally exquisite and adequate, between mind and mind, a system by which men approach one another with sympathy and enjoyment, a field for the finest amenities of civilization, for the keenest and most intelligent display of social activity. It is also our solace, our inspiration, and our most rational pleasure. It is a duty we owe to one another; it is our common debt to humanity. — Agnes Repplier
The more you talk to cats ... the smarter they become. An occasional 'nice kitty' will have no measurable effect; intelligent conversation is required. — Lilian Jackson Braun
In one of my latest conversations with Darwin he expressed himself very gloomily on the future of humanity, on the ground that in our modern civilization natural selection had no play, and the fittest did not survive. Those who succeed in the race for wealth are by no means the best or the most intelligent, and it is notorious that our population is more largely renewed in each generation from the lower than from the middle and upper classes. — Alfred Russel Wallace
The largest factor in predicting group intelligence was the equality of conversational turn taking; groups where a few people dominated the conversation were less collectively intelligent than those with a more equal distribution of conversational turn taking. — Alex Pentland
I often derive a peculiar satisfaction in conversing with the ancient and modern dead, — who yet live and speak excellently in their works. My neighbors think me often alone, — and yet at such times I am in company with more than five hundred mutes — each of whom, at my pleasure, communicates his ideas to me by dumb signs — quite as intelligently as any person living can do by uttering of words. — Laurence Sterne
I like spontaneity and intelligence in a girl. Nothing is more attractive to me than someone who has a good sense of who she is and can hold her own in a conversation. — Nathan Adrian
I have often had cause to feel that my hands are cleverer than my head. That is a crude way of characterizing the dialectics of experimentation. When it is going well, it is like a quiet conversation with Nature. One asks a question and gets an answer, then one asks the next question and gets the next answer. An experiment is a device to make Nature speak intelligibly. After that, one only has to listen. — George Wald
It was a rather extraordinary conversation if you think about it -- both of us speaking in code. But not military code, not Intelligence or Resistance code -- just feminine code. — Elizabeth Wein
Then you’re going to stay in that net until eternity comes to pass. (Sin) Well, that’s really intelligent, isn’t it? What are you going to do? Put drinks on me or just use me as a conversation piece whenever friends come over? And let’s not even think about what’s going to happen when I need to use the restroom, shall we? I hope you have a standing order at Sofa Express. (Kat) — Sherrilyn Kenyon
Talking to oneself, I have often thought, is the best way to be sure of intelligent and witty conversation. — Grant Morrison
In Conclusion
Which quotation resonated with you best? Did you enjoy our collection of intelligent conversation quotes? Or may be you have a slogan about intelligent conversation to suggest. Let us know using our contact form.
Citation
Feel free to cite and use any of the quotes in this collection of intelligent conversation quotations. For popular citation styles(APA, Chicago, MLA), please use this citation page.