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Quote by Graham Greene

“Against the beautiful and the clever and the successful, one can wage a pitiless war, but not against the unattractive: then the millstone weighs on the breast.”

Author

Graham Greene

Graham Greene was a renowned British writer born on October 2, 1904. His works are characterized by deep insight and unique narrative techniques, and he is hailed as one of the greatest novelists of the 20th century. Greene's writing spans a variety of themes, including spy novels, religious novels, and noir novels. more

“The argument culture urges us to approach the world - and the people in it - in an adversarial frame of mind. It rests on the assumption that opposition is the best way to get anything done: The best way to discuss an idea is to set up a debate; the best way to cover news is to find spokespeople who express the most extreme, polarized views and present them as 'both sides'; the best way to settle disputes is litigation that pits one party against the other; the best way to begin an essay is to attack someone; and the best way to show you're really thinking is to criticize.”

“All communication is more or less cross-cultural. We learn to use language as we grow up, and growing up in different parts of the country, having different ethnic, religious, or class backgrounds, even just being male or female - all result in different ways of talking.”

Source: That's not what I meant!: how conversational style makes or breaks your relations with others

“All conversation, in addition to whatever else it does, displays, and asks for recognition of, our competence.”

Doe Asks Conversation Recognition Display Competence

Book:That's not what I meant!: how conversational style makes or breaks your relations with others

Source: That's not what I meant!: how conversational style makes or breaks your relations with others

“any criticism heard secondhand sounds worse than it would face to face. Words spoken out of our presence strike us as more powerful, just as people we know only by reputation seem larger than life.”

People Knows Seems Faces Sound Powerful Heard Criticism Strikes Reputation Face To Face Larger Than Life

Book:That's not what I meant!: how conversational style makes or breaks your relations with others

Source: That's not what I meant!: how conversational style makes or breaks your relations with others

“In an ongoing relationship, each current criticism packs the punches of all the others that have gone before.”

Gone Criticism Currents Packs Ongoing

Book:That's not what I meant!: how conversational style makes or breaks your relations with others

Source: That's not what I meant!: how conversational style makes or breaks your relations with others

“When those closest to us respond to events differently than we do, when they seem to see the same scene as part of a different play, when they say things that we could not imagine saying in the same circumstances, the ground on which we stand seems to tremble and our footing is suddenly unsure.”

Different Play Seems Imagine Events Circumstances Scene Closest Unsure

Author:Deborah Tannen

Quote by Graham Greene

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