Take as many half minutes as you can get, but never talk more than half a minute without pausing and giving others an opportunity to strike in.

Unless Sammler had private thoughts to occupy him, he couldn't sit through these talks with Margotte.

Hear much, speak little.

Bore, n. A person who talks when you wish him to listen.

Conversation, n. A fair for the display of the minor mental commodities, each exhibitor being too intent upon the arrangement of his own wares to observe those of his neighbor.

The true spirit of conversation consists in building on another man's observation, not overturning it.

But stories somehow lengthen when begun.

Look in the face of the person to whom you are speaking if you wish to know his real sentiments, for he can command his words more easily than his countenance.

Never seem wiser or more learned than the people you are with.

Take the tone of the company you are in.