How to Speak / How to Listen Quotes

“Being relevant simply consists in paying close attention to the point that is being talked about and saying nothing that is not significantly related to it.”
― Mortimer J. Adler, How to Speak How to Listen

“The communion that can be achieved by human conversation is of great significance for our private lives...It is the spiritual parallel of the physical union by which lovers try to become one.”
― Mortimer J. Adler, How to Speak / How to Listen

“Suck talk is concerned with emotional problems of deep concern to the persons involved. It is deeply serious, probably more serious than any other kind of talk, for it aims to remove emotional misunderstandings or to alleviate, if not eliminate, emotional tensions.”
― Mortimer J. Adler, How to Speak How to Listen

“What I have in mind when I use the phrase “personal conversation” is often called a “heart-to-heart talk.”
― Mortimer J. Adler, How to Speak How to Listen

“The first division is between playful and serious conversations. By playful conversation, I mean all forms of talk that have no set purpose, no objective to achieve, no controlling direction. In addition, like play itself, which is that form of human activity in which we engage purely for the pleasure inherent in the activity itself, conversation that is playful in intent rather than seriously motivated is conversation that is enjoyable for its own sake, and not pursued”
― Mortimer J. Adler, How to Speak How to Listen