George Mikes Quotes

What do you think is the world's most recognisable container of information? It's the human face. We are constantly reading each other and responding.

The art of reading physical tells isn't an exact science.

She looks honestly upset, but then, I’ve learned that I can’t read her. The problem with a really excellent liar is that you have to just assume they’re always lying.

When the eyes say one thing, and the tongue another, a practiced man relies on the language of the first.

The worst of having so much tact was that you never quite knew whether other people were acting naturally or being tactful too. [The human element]

Watt had watched people smile and thought he understood how it was done.

I see tendencies, I see body language.

A smile abroad is often a scowl at home.

I love body language.

Naturally, my body language changes given whatever environment I'm in.

Body language is more fascinating to me than actual language.

People judge you really quickly, at first just on your facial features. There are two dimensions - warmth and competence. You can think of them as trustworthiness and strength. They're first judging you on warmth; evaluating whether or not you are trustworthy. That's much more important to them than whether or not you're competent.

Make it your profitable habit to carefully study facial expressions. You can see the entire human drama in a face; you can tell its owner's history.

Our human face happens to be one of the most powerful channels that we all use to communicate social and emotional states: everything from enjoyment, surprise, empathy, and curiosity.

I was really interested in observing people. From a young age, I wouldn't listen to what an adult was saying - I was obsessed with other people's body language.

My poker face makes it difficult for people to figure out what's on my mind.

Many people with autism struggle with reading nonverbal cues and acting on them. When you lose that ability to understand and process nonverbal cues, you're at a huge disadvantage socially.

You just have to look at me to know what I am feeling. So I would be a useless policewoman or spy.

What that situation really needed was a little eyebrows.

Listening is terribly important if you want to understand anything about people. You listen to what they say and how they say it, what they share and what they are reticent about, what they tell truthfully and what they lie about, what they hope for and what they fear, what they are proud of, what they are ashamed of. If you don't pay attention to other people, how can you understand their choices through time and how their stories come out?

I always put these pert jackanapeses out of countenance by looking extremely grave when they expect that I should laugh at their pleasantries; and by saying Well, and so?--as if they had not done, and that the sting were still to come. This disconcerts them, as they have no resources in themselves, and have but one set of jokes to live upon.

I am getting better at smiling when people expect it.

Watch their hands, watch their eyes. Read eyes. No matter what a man is saying to you, it's not as important as what you can read in his eyes. The most important thing a man has to tell you is what he's not telling you; the most important thing he has to say is what he's trying not to say.

My radar, after all these years of sanity, is still off when it comes to what people do or don't mean.