Asa Gray Quotes

When I am getting ready to reason with a man, I spend one-third of my time thinking about myself and what I am going to say and two-thirds about him and what he is going to say.

Sometimes when I visit schools, kids will interview me for the school newspaper. They ask me questions and my answers tend to go on and on, and they try to write down everything I'm saying as quickly as they can. And one day, a kid holds up her hand and said, 'Do you think you could just answer 'yes' or 'no?' Aren't kids wonderful?

Some people are very good at that, communicating with the world; I'm not sure I'm suited to it.

I always had a lot of confidence in my ability to gauge a situation and people and try to understand them and what they were saying and what their context was.

Negotiation is empathy. It's almost trite to say that if you can't put yourself in the seat of the other person you're speaking with, you're not going to do well. It's not about being a bully, not about making offers people can't refuse.

The writing is all done, so it's all about verbalizing everything from point A to point B, and certainly there's a bit of politics involved, so it's a different thing.

I'm not a very good advice-giver.

Communication is an issue where we can improve, and if I can do anything to help, I am happy to.

Your ability to communicate is an important tool in your pursuit of your goals, whether it is with your family, your co-workers or your clients and customers.

For me, becoming a man had a lot to do with learning communication, and I learned about that by acting.

Ever since I was a kid, I've known I could talk to people.

There's a popular concept of 'intelligence' as book smarts, like calculus or chess, as opposed to, say, social skills. So people say that 'it takes more than intelligence to succeed in human society.' But social skills reside in the brain, not the kidneys.

I'm a reasonably articulate individual.

I'm not that guy who thinks I have all the answers. Writing is a means of communicating, and if enough people say, 'I don't get it,' it's worth looking at.

I'm not great at small talk.

I got my degree in rhetoric.

I do believe that in order to be a successful negotiator that as a diplomat, you have to be able to put yourself into the other person's shoes. Unless you can understand what is motivating them, you are never going to be able to figure out how to solve a particular problem.

In general, questions are fine; you can always seize upon the parts of them that interest you and concentrate on answering those. And one has to remember when answering questions that asking questions isn't easy either, and for someone who's quite shy to stand up in an audience to speak takes some courage.

One of my strengths is my ability to talk and communicate with people.

I made lots of talks and challenged lots of people.

I will listen to any argument put to me.

I want them to listen to me for what I am saying. And I think the best way to do that is to sniff my armpits, and like, sit and burp every now and then.

When you have a problem, rules don't solve your problem. It's caring and education.

The ability to communicate with everybody, regardless of who are you are, is a great thing.

The aim of argument, or of discussion, should not be victory, but progress.