What we want is to see the child in pursuit of knowledge, and not knowledge in pursuit of the child.
George Bernard ShawRead
She had lost the art of conversation but not, unfortunately, the power of speech.
Interpretation
The quote highlights the distinction between effective communication and mere verbal expression.
George Bernard Shaw's quote reflects on the decline of meaningful dialogue in society, suggesting that while individuals may possess the ability to speak, they may have lost the capacity for genuine conversation. It underscores the importance of engaging in thoughtful exchanges rather than just exchanging words, calling attention to a deeper issue in interpersonal communication and societal interaction.
In practice
In a public speaking event discussing the importance of communication skills.
What we want is to see the child in pursuit of knowledge, and not knowledge in pursuit of the child.
Marriage is good enough for the lower classes: they have facilities for desertion that are denied to us.
Forgive him, for he believes that the customs of his tribe are the laws of nature!
Those who talk most about the blessings of marriage and the constancy of its vows are the very people who declare that if the chain were broken and the prisoners left free to choose, the whole social fabric would fly asunder. You cannot have the argument both ways. If the prisoner is happy, why lock him in? If he is not, why pretend that he is?
Treat a friend as a person who may someday become your enemy; an enemy as a person who may someday become your friend.
The happiness of credulity is a cheap and dangerous quality.
He says a million things without saying a word. I have never heard a more eloquent silence.
Your purpose is to make your audience see what you saw, hear what you heard, feel what you felt.
There may be an art to conversation, and some are better at it than others, but conversation's virtue lies in randomness and possibility: people, without a plan, could speak a spontaneous, unexpected truth, because revelation rules. Telling words recur in this smart, generous conversation between Stephen Andrews and Gregg Bordowitz: patience, responsibility, feminism, ethics, cosmology, AIDS, gift, freedom, mortality.
The first rule of my speaking is: listen!
If we were meant to talk more than listen, we would have two mouths and one ear.
Once you can clearly describe what you are reacting to, free of your interpretation or evaluation of it, other people are less likely to be defensive when they hear it.
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