41 Communication Quotes To Inspire

In a world where connection is key, effective communication stands as the cornerstone of all relationships, personal or professional. From fostering understanding to bridging divides, the right words can inspire change and drive success. Today, we bring you a specially curated collection of the top 41 communication quotes. These pearls of wisdom are designed to inspire, motivate, and perhaps even transform the way you think about the art of communication. Dive in and let the power of words propel you towards more meaningful connections.

1. “Write to be understood, speak to be heard, read to grow.” - Lawrence Clark Powell

2. “Wisdom cannot be imparted. Wisdom that a wise man attempts to impart always sounds like foolishness to someone else ... Knowledge can be communicated, but not wisdom. One can find it, live it, do wonders through it, but one cannot communicate and teach it.” - Hermann Hesse

3. “I shall look at you out of the corner of my eye, and you will say nothing. Words are the source of misunderstandings.” - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

4. “Much unhappiness has come into the world because of bewilderment and things left unsaid.” - Fyodor Dostoevsky

5. “No one can tell, when two people walk closely together, what unconscious communication one mind may have with another” - Robert Barr

6. “We are stronger when we listen, and smarter when we share.” - Rania Al-Abdullah

7. “With the Internet, we can choose the very communities we want to be a part of.” - Alex Shakar

8. “Neither you nor I speak English, but there are some things that can be said only in English.” - Aravind Adiga

9. “What I think the political correctness debate is really about is the power to be able to define. The definers want the power to name. And the defined are now taking that power away from them.” - Toni Morrison

10. “And the second [thing about the CBS EVENING NEWS that stands out in the mind of Michael J. Fox] was something Katie did later in the interview, as the drugs kicked in and the tremors segued into the jerkiness of dyskinesias. Somewhere in the contortions of making a point, my left arm detached the microphone clip from my jacket lapel. With no fuss and hardly a break in conversation or eye contact, she calmly leaned over and refastened it. Neither of us commented on it, but it was such an empathetic gesture, so far from anything patronizing or pitying, a simple kindness that allowed me the dignity to carry on making a point more important than the superficiality of my physical circumstance......One thing was abundantly clear though, whether or not she was able to forget how much she liked me: with that single act of consideration, she made it abundantly clear how much she loved her father.” - Michael J. Fox

11. “A beautiful thing happens when we start paying attention to each other. It is by participating more in your relationship that you breathe life into it.” - Steve Maraboli

12. “The medium obscured the message.” - Christopher Moore

13. “You can talk with someone for years, everyday, and still, it won't mean as much as what you can have when you sit in front of someone, not saying a word, yet you feel that person with your heart, you feel like you have known the person for forever.... connections are made with the heart, not the tongue.” - C. JoyBell C.

14. “He mentioned the connection between us. He identified with me. These are the things that many people want to hear, that most “normal” people want to be able to truthfully say, but almost no one can.” - Rasmenia Massoud

15. “I can talk for a long time only when it's about something boring.” - Lydia Davis

16. “Geez, what do I need to do, use semaphore? I told you I was unclaimed.” - Katie MacAlister

17. “What sets humans apart from animals is that we have to walk around saying how smart we are, and animals just live their lives.” - Chanctetinyea J. J. Ouellette

18. “We speak not only to tell other people what we think, but to tell ourselves what we think. Speech is a part of thought.” - Oliver Sacks

19. “Before you can be effective in communication with ANYONE else, you must know who YOU are. It begins with you. Believe me when I say, I don't need anyone's approval in this classroom ... I'm great company for myself. Me, myself, and I ... we laugh a lot. (Said on the first week of class each phase, somewhat rewording each time, but the gist is always there).” - Dacia Wilkinson

20. “You can’t say A is made of B or vice versa. All mass is interaction.” - Richard P. Feynman

21. “Now, 75 years [after To Kill a Mockingbird], in an abundant society where people have laptops, cell phones, iPods, and minds like empty rooms, I still plod along with books.[Open Letter, O Magazine, July 2006]” - Harper Lee

22. “It only becomes art if it touches other people.” - Andreas Eschbach

23. “The human mind is like a fertile ground were seed are continually being planted. The seeds are opinions, ideas, and concepts. You plant a seed, a thought grows, and it grows. The word is like a seed and the human mind is so fertile!” - Don Miguel Ruiz

24. “Arrogance is someone claiming to have come to Christ, but they won't spend more than five minutes listening to your journey because they are more concerned about their own well being, rather than being a true disciple of Christ. Blessed is the person that takes the time to heal and hear another person so they can move on.” - Shannon L. Alder

25. “I sort of kind of said something a little like that but maybe not clearly enough to sound like that... But it's what I meant.” - Mary Eva Swatek

26. “True saddness is when someone still thinks your the same person after all these years. They brand you because of their own ego, fear and lack of spirituality. What's sadder is when they are Christian.” - Shannon L. Alder

27. “To say exactly what one means, even to one's own private satisfaction, is difficult. To say exactly what one means and to involve another person is harder still. Communication between you and me relies on assumptions, associations, commonalities and a kind of agreed shorthand, which no-one could precisely define but which everyone would admit exists. That is one reason why it is an effort to have a proper conversation in a foreign language. Even if I am quite fluent, even if I understand the dictionary definitions of words and phrases, I cannot rely on a shorthand with the other party, whose habit of mind is subtly different from my own. Nevertheless, all of us know of times when we have not been able to communicate in words a deep emotion and yet we know we have been understood. This can happen in the most foreign of foreign parts and it can happen in our own homes. It would seem that for most of us, most of the time, communication depends on more than words.” - Jeanette Winterson

28. “Peace requires something far more difficult than revenge or merely turning the other cheek; it requires empathizing with the fears and unmet needs that provide the impetus for people to attack each other. Being aware of these feelings and needs, people lose their desire to attack back because they can see the human ignorance leading to these attacks; instead, their goal becomes providing the empathic connection and education that will enable them to transcend their violence and engage in cooperative relationships.” - Marshall B. Rosenberg

29. “There are only two ways to live your life. One as if all that matters is to have someone love and accept you. The other is as though loving and accepting another person is all that matters. Often, when you choose the second you get the first.” - Shannon L. Alder

30. “Of all of our inventions for mass communication, pictures still speak the most universally understood language.” - Walt Disney

31. “It just took some people a little longer than others to realize how few words they needed to get by, how much of life they could negotiate in silence.” - Tom Perrotta

32. “Tada sam shvatio dvije stvari: prvo, da ne moraš znati jezik da bi razumio prijatelja, i drugo, da je Ervin Hladnik Milharčić ozbiljan genij.” - Boris Dežulović

33. “Of all affairs, communication is the most wonderful.” - John Dewey

34. “not responding verbally isn't necessarily being passive. we are communicating on many levels simultaneously” - waking life

35. “I phoned the Admiral back.'It's no use, Admiral, the French speak nothing but French.'There was a short pause on the end of the line then his voice rattled into life like a sabre.'They're lying, Tim!''What?''The French Navy must by law speak English, as English is the international maritime language of the sea.''Has anyone told the French that?'The line went dead for a moment before he thundered, 'Yes Nelson. At the battle of Trafalgar.'I tried to stifle an irresistibly British giggle not knowing if the Admiral was making a joke or not. I got it right. He was serious.” - Tim Fitzhigham

36. “The poem or the discovery exists in two moments of vision: the moment of appreciation as much as that of creation; for the appreciator must see the movement, wake to the echo which was started in the creation of the work. In the moment of appreciation we live again the moment when the creator saw and held the hidden likeness. When a simile takes us aback and persuades us together, when we find a juxtaposition in a picture both odd and intriguing, when a theory is at once fresh and convincing, we do not merely nod over someone else's work. We re-enact the creative act, and we ourselves make the discovery again......Reality is not an exhibit for man's inspection, labeled: "Do not touch." There are no appearances to be photographed, no experiences to be copied, in which we do not take part. We re-make nature by the act of discovery, in the poem or in the theorem. And the great poem and the deep theorem are new to every reader, and yet are his own experiences, because he himself re-creates them. They are the marks of unity in variety; and in the instant when the mind seizes this for itself, in art or in science, the heart misses a beat.” - Jacob Bronowski

37. “to bar communication between intellectuals, who are always our best hope of peace, is particularly self-defeating and inane. It declares, inter alia, that we have a) made up our minds about what we think, b) closed our minds to what others think, and c) chosen to go on hearing nothing with which we happen to disagree.” - Howard Jacobson

38. “Love yourself enough to give what matters every chance of working by communicating as well as you possibly can, and trying for as long as you wish.” - jay woodman

39. “I have talents that I'm not supposed to have: I can tell who crushes on who by how they stand, I can read strides, I can hear the tonal differences between an alto and a soprano singing the same line so clearly that to me they sing entirely different notes, and I can read through the lines and tell when a person doesn't need to be writing at all. That, that is what makes me a snob, because I cannot abide a person putting pen to paper or fingers on keys when they don't need to, when word choice is not as relevant and demanding and essential to them as breathing and syntax is about being correct and not about being evocative.” - Julia Bascom

40. “We no longer have a sufficiently high estimate of ourselves when we communicate. Our true experiences are not garrulous. They could not communicate themselves if they wanted to: they lack words. We have already grown beyond whatever we have words for. In all talking there lies a grain of contempt. Speech, it seems, was devised only for the average medium, communicable. The speaker has already vulgarized himself by speaking.” - Friedrich Nietzsche

41. “Propagandists reveal themselves through their use of tricks such as "name-calling", employing "glittering generalities", "plain folks" identifications, "card stacking", "bandwagon" devices, and so on. Such devices could be identified easily in many religious and political speeches, even in academic lectures, and this approach to propaganda analysis led to a kind of witch-hunt for propagandists.” - Klaus Krippendorff