Sydney J. Harris Quotes

The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.

Now, what we are not talking about, what you're really coming to, is what compromises one makes so that the listener understands somewhat of what you're doing, what you're trying to express.

You have to work very hard behind the scenes, to make a message clear enough for a lot of people to understand.

The medium is the message.

A communication highway without content is inconceivable.

The newest computer can merely compound, at speed, the oldest problem in the relations between human beings, and in the end the communicator will be confronted with the old problem, of what to say and how to say it.

The way you communicate an idea is different than the way you communicate a product.

Communication is important.

If you want to get across an idea, wrap it up in person.

For me, until I know that the audience really gets what I'm trying to communicate I'm not done.

Communicate, communicate, and then communicate some more.

First learn the meaning of what you say, and then speak.

Communication is at the very core of our society. That's what makes us human.

Communication is about being effective, not always about being proper.

All speech, written or spoken, is a dead language, until it finds a willing and prepared hearer.

It can always be transformed into an avenue of information.

Without a possibility of change in meanings human communication could not perform its present functions.

Communication is everyone's panacea for everything.

Listening and hearing are two different things, and acting is comprehending what the person is saying, thinking how it makes you feel and responding. That's the key to really honest, truthful, compelling performance.

I try to just communicate what I want done as clearly and simply as possible.

You must be loud but you must also be understandable. There’s no point in being loud if you can’t be understood.

What you say in defense of … ideas matters, and what people hear matters even more.

Effective communication is 20% what you know and 80% how you feel about what you know.

We've learned a lot about how information needs to flow effectively amongst a group of people. They need to be fed information, and it needs to be on this constant conveyor belt.

Whenever I have a message to get out I seem to find a way to get my message out.