Espresso is to Italy, what champagne is to France.
Charles Maurice De TalleyrandRead
If we go on explaining we shall cease to understand one another.
Interpretation
Explaining too much can lead to misunderstandings between people.
This quote by Talleyrand emphasizes the idea that over-explaining or trying to clarify everything can result in confusion rather than understanding. When we focus too much on the details and intricacies of our thoughts, we may lose the essence of the communication, leading to a breakdown in mutual understanding. It suggests that simplicity and clarity in communication are often more effective than elaborate explanations.
In practice
A speaker at a conference might use this quote to highlight the importance of clear communication.
Espresso is to Italy, what champagne is to France.
A court is an assembly of noble and distinguished beggars.
I am more afraid of an army of 100 sheep led by a lion than an army of 100 lions led by a sheep.
What clever man has ever needed to commit a crime? Crime is the last resort of political half-wits.
An important art of politicians is to find new names for institutions which under old names have become odious to the public.
Love of glory can only create a great hero; contempt of glory creates a great man.
The only thing that guarantees an open-ended collaboration among human beings, the only thing that guarantees that this project is truly open-ended, is a willingness to have our beliefs and behaviors modified by the power of conversation.
When you forget yourself and your fear, when you get beyond self-consciousness because your mind is thinking about what you are trying to communicate, you become a better communicator
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?
Words can fall hard like a boulder loosed from a cliff. Words can drift unnoticed like a weed seed on a breeze. Words can sing.
It does not matter what you know about anything if you cannot communicate to your people. In that event, you are not even a failure. You're just not there.
Few things concentrate the mind more efficiently than the necessity of saying what you mean. It brings you face to face with what you are talking about, what you are actually proposing. It gets you away from the catch phrases that not merely substitute for thought but preclude it.
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