David Bohm Quotes

The communication of ideas requires a similitude of thought and language . . .

Common experience is the gold reserve which confers an exchange value on the currency which words are; without this reserve of shared experiences, all our pronouncements are checks drawn on insufficient funds.

When two, or more men, know of one and the same fact, they are said to be CONSCIOUS of it one to another; which is as much as to know it together.

The spoken word converts individual knowledge into mutual knowledge, and there is no way back once you've gone over that cliff. Saying nothing was more amendable, and over time I'd come to see that it was usually your best course of action.

Communication is mutual feeling with someone, not a didactic process of information.

If you start trying to communicate ideas, I think you don't allow the audience to see themselves.

It is easier to speak to those who have had similar experiences than to those who are as yet ignorant.

Truth springs from argument amongst friends.

Use anything you can think of to understand and be understood, and you'll discover the creativity that connects you with others.

Understanding is a two-way street.

I value unity because I believe we learn truth from each other in this process.

If you can appeal to another person's sense of humor, you can introduce ideas, thoughts, things that they may disagree with or not believe in. At least they'll listen.

The theater is the place where people create ideas and send messages out, and you learn, and I think it's a fair venue for disagreement and enlightenment.

Before I collaborate, it's important that I have a conversation about what I care about before we make anything, so that it's very clear.

I'm really interested in how we understand each other - and whether we can understand each other.

If it is in speaking their word that people, by naming the world, transform it, dialogue imposes itself as the way by which they achieve significance as human beings.

We should not be speaking to, but with. That is second nature to any good teacher.

We must understand that out of community and dialogue, the answers will arrive in their own time and way.

The one seeks a midwife to deliver his thoughts, the other, someone to assist: thus a good conversation comes into being.

Reaching and understanding is the process of bringing about an agreement on the presupposed basis of validity claims that are mutually recognized.

You cannot explain to someone who comes with no idea of what you are talking about without being misunderstood.

In dialogue, individuals gain insights that simply could not be achieved individually.

Where there are so many, all speech becomes a debate without end. But two together may perhaps find wisdom.

A conversation isn't a competition.

It is hard to believe long together that anything is "worth while," unless there is some eye to kindle in common with our own, some brief word uttered now and then to imply that what is infinitely precious to us is precious alike to another mind.