And there is monologue disguised as dialogue, in which two or more men, meeting in space, speak each with himself in strangely tortuous and circuitous ways and yet imagine they have escaped the torment of being thrown back on their own resources. – Martin Buber (1878—1965), translated from German

Does it seem sometimes that you are always the one to break an embarrassing silence — and always by saying something more embarrassing than the silence? – Robert Brault, rbrault.blogspot.com

Blessed is the man who, having nothing to say, abstains from giving us wordy evidence of the fact—from calling on us to look through a heap of millet-seed in order to be sure that there is no pearl in it. – George Eliot, Impressions of Theophrastus Such, 1879