E. W. Howe Quotes

Talk often, but never long; in that case, if you do not please, at least you are sure not to tire your hearers. Pay your own reckoning, but do not treat the whole company; this being one of the few cases in which people do not care to be treated, every one being fully convinced that he has wherewithal to pay.

Atticus had said it was the polite thing to talk to people about what they were interested in, not about what you were interested in.

There is nothing I hate more than meeting someone who has forgotten the art of conversing.

No man would listen to you talk if he didn't know it was his turn next.

I think that people in Mexico talk too much.

talking too much is a far greater social fault than talking too little.

I think you can only be outgoing when the person you're talking to is outgoing. I can be outgoing if I want to be, if you meet me halfway.

On every formal visit a child ought to be of the party, by way of provisions for discourse.

Some guys like to talk. What's the problem with that?

They are a very decent generous lot of people out here and they don't expect you to listen.... It's the secret of social ease in this country. They talk entirely for their own pleasure. Nothing they say is designed to be heard.

It is your turn to say something now, Mr. Darcy. I talked about the dance, and you ought to make some kind of remark on the size of the room, or the number of couples.

It is an impertinent and unreasonable fault in conversation for one man to take up all the discourse.

You flirt with everything." She could tell that her eyes were popping-- her eyeballs actually felt cold around the edges. "You flirt with old people and babies and everybody in between.

You only had to choose which me to talk to, for, you know, we all change our manners, depending on who has come to chat. One doesn’t behave at all the same way to a grandfather as to a bosom friend, to a professor as to a curious niece.

A party is a slightly artificial event where one learns the rudiments of human behavior at its most admirable: speaking when spoken to, looking somebody in the eye, shaking hands and being friendly under duress.

A well-bred youth neither speakes of himselfe, nor being spoken to is silent.

Politicians make good company for a while just as children do - their self-enjoyment is contagious. But they soon exhaust their favourite subjects - themselves.

Like Cammie is fine," Macey said, then glanced at me. "No offense." "None taken," I said. "I think.

It is by vivacity and wit that man shines in company; but trite jokes and loud laughter reduce him to a buffoon.

Performing is one thing, and day-to-day stuff - like the way you talk to people - is totally different. If I acted like I did onstage in normal life, everyone would probably hate me.

We have employments assigned to us for every circumstance in life. When we are alone, we have our thoughts to watch; in the family, our tempers; and in company, our tongues.

When politeness is used to show up other people, it is reclassified as rudeness. Thus it is technically impossible to be too polite.

Matthew, much to his own surprise, was enjoying himself. Like most quiet folks he liked talkative people when they were willing to do the talking themselves and did not expect him to keep up his end of it.

Table talk, to be perfect, should be sincere without bigotry, differing without discord, sometimes grave, always agreeable, touching on deep points, dwelling most on seasonable ones, and letting everybody speak and be heard.

On the Continent there is one topic which should be avoided-the weather; in England, if you do not repeat the phrase "Lovely day, isn't it?" at least two hundred times a day, you are considered a bit dull.