It is not so much the content of what one says as the way in which one says it. However important the thing you say, what's the good of it if not heard or, being heard, not felt.
-Sylvia Ashton-Warner

God, the illogic! The impossibility of communication in this house. The sheer operation alone of getting something through to somebody.
-Sylvia Ashton-Warner

It pays to be obvious, especially if you have a reputation for subtlety.
-Isaac Asimov

The worst thing about the miracle of modern communications is the Pavlovian pressure it places upon everyone to communicate whenever a bell rings.
-Russell Baker, No Cause for Pain, "Times (London)", November 28, 1991

The marriage of reason and nightmare which has dominated the 20th century has given birth to an ever more ambiguous world. Across the communications landscape move the specters of sinister technologies and the dreams that money can buy.
-J. G. Ballard, Introduction to the French edition of "Crash", 1974

Ordinary people who know nothing of phonetics or elocution have difficulties in understanding slow speech composed of perfect sounds, while they have no difficulty in comprehending an imperfect gabble if only the accent and rhythm are natural.
-Alexander Graham Bell, The Mechanisms of Speech, 1916

Drawing on my fine command of language, I said nothing.
-Robert Benchley

It seemed rather incongruous that in a society of supersophisticated communication, we often suffer from a shortage of listeners.
-Erma Bombeck, "If Life Is a Bowl of Cherries...", 1971

Self-expression must pass into communication for its fulfillment.
-Pearl Buck, The Writer's Book

"Do but take care to express yourself in a plain, easy Manner, in well-chosen, significant and decent Terms, and to give a harmonious and pleasing Turn to your Periods: study to explain your Thoughts, and set them in the truest Light, labouring as much as possible, not to leave them dark nor intricate, but clear and intelligible."
-Miguel de Cervantes, Preface to Don Quixote

Loneliness is never more cruel than when it is felt in close propinquity with someone who has ceased to communicate.
-Germaine Greer, The Female Eunuch [1971], "Security"

A world community can exist only with world communication, which means something more than extensive shortwave facilities scattered about the globe. It means common understanding, a common tradition, common ideas, and common ideals.
-Robert Maynard Hutchins

Good communication is as stimulating as black coffee, and just as hard to sleep after.
-Anne Morrow Lindbergh, Gift From The Sea

If then the power of speech is as great as any that can be named,—if the origin of language is by many philosophers considered nothing short of divine—if by means of words the secrets of the heart are brought to light, pain of soul is relieved, hidden grief is carried off, sympathy conveyed, experience recorded, and wisdom perpetuated,—if by great authors the many are drawn up into unity, national character is fixed, a people speaks, the past and the future, the East and the West are brought into communication with each other,—if such men are, in a word, the spokesmen and the prophets of the human family—it will not answer to make light of Literature or to neglect its study: rather we may be sure that, in proportion as we master it in whatever language, and imbibe its spirit, we shall ourselves become in our own measure the ministers of like benefits to others—be they many or few, be they in the obscurer or the more distinguished walks of life—who are united to us by social ties, and are within the sphere of our personal influence.
-John Henry Newman, Idea of a University, 1852

We cannot learn from one another until we stop shouting at one another -- until we speak quietly enough so that our words can be heard as well as our voices.
-Richard Milhous Nixon

One of the most satisfying experiences I know is fully to appreciate an individual in the same way I appreciate a sunset. When I look at a sunset...I don't find myself saying, 'Soften the orange a litle more on the right hand corner, and put a bit more purple along the base, and use a little more pink in the cloud color...' I don't try to control a sunset. I watch it with awe as it unfolds.
-Carl R. Rogers, Experiences in Communication

Effective communication is 20% what you know and 80% how you feel about what you know.
-Jim Rohn

If you’d think 1% more, you’d speak 50% less, and appear 100% more intelligent.
-Scott Sorrell

I have a habit of comparing the phraseology of communiques . . . noting a certain similarity of words, a certain similarity of optimism . . . and a certain similarity in the lack of practical results during the ensuring years.
-Margaret Thatcher

"A dog is not considered a good dog because he is a good barker. A man is not considered a good man because he is a good talker."
-Chuang Tzu

People have to talk about something just to keep their voice boxes in working order, so they'll have good voice boxes in case there's ever anything really meaningful to say.
-Kurt Vonnegut, Cat's Cradle.