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Don't try to go too fast. Learn your job. Don't ever talk until you know what you're talking about... If you want to get along, go along.
--
Reported in Neil MacNeil, Forge of Democracy, the House of Representatives (1963), p. 129.

 

Sam Rayburn

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Anyone can learn to play fast, like anyone can learn to type quickly. But not everyone can write a book.

 

Yngwie J. Malmsteen

 

'You talk for talking’s sake,' she hissed. I asked if that was bad. 'I mean it,' the girl replied. 'You talk for talking’s sake.' I had heard her the first time and had understood the words but not the contempt with which they were charged. 'Would you be equally annoyed,' I asked, 'if I danced for dancing’s sake? […] I should have said, 'Would you hate me if I lived for living’s sake?' This would have been the total question — the one to which a full reply could have saved the world.

 

Quentin Crisp

 

With regard to the Iranians, we know that by not talking to Iran the U.S. did not improve the situation. Today Iran is a nuclear power - it doesn’t have nuclear weapons yet, but in 2001 it was not yet able to convert uranium or uranium gas, it didn’t have a single centrifuge. Now it’s stockpiling highly enriched uranium. So the current approach of not talking hasn’t worked. There’s no guarantee that if you talk you’ll succeed, but if you don’t talk you will fail.

 

Dennis Ross

 

Think about whatever you want to say in the first place. Do not talk only with your lips. Use your eyes, ears and body language to talk as well. If you see what you are talking about, audience can also visualize and feel it.

 

Elia M. Ramollah

 

My view is that you don't just talk to your friends. You talk to your enemies, as well. And the diplomacy involves talking to your enemies. You don't reward your enemies necessarily, by talking to them if you're tough and you know what you're doing. You don't appease them. Talking to an enemy is not, in my view, appeasement. I made 15 trips to Syria in 1990-1991 at a time when Syria was on the list of countries who are state sponsors of terrorism. And the 16th trip, guess what? Lo and behold, Syria changed 25 years of policy and agreed for the first time in history to come sit at the table with Israel, which is what Israel wanted at the time. And, thereby, implicitly recognized Israel's right to exist. Now, all I'm saying is that would never have happened if we hadn't been sufficiently dedicated that we were going to keep at it.

 

James Baker