Talking is like playing on the harp; there is as much in laying the hands on the strings to stop their vibration as in twanging them to bring out their music. – Oliver Wendell Holmes

The difference between a smart man and a wise man is that a smart man knows what to say, a wise man knows whether or not to say it. – Frank M. Garafola

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

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