Quotes about Dialogue

Conversation is one of the loveliest of the arts.

PRINCIPLE 4 Be a good listener. Encourage others to talk about themselves.

Show respect for the other person's opinions. Never say, 'You're wrong.

Why is it, comedian Lily Tomlin asks, "that when we speak to God we are said to be praying but when God speaks to us we are said to be schizophrenic?" Such a response from ourselves or others to someone's claim to have heard from God is especially likely today because of the lack of specific teaching and pastoral guidance on such matters.

People are meant to live in an ongoing conversation with God, speaking and being spoken to.

We want to ask questions and not just make assertions.

Let us make a special effort to stop communicating with each other, so we can have some conversation.

'What is the use of a book', thought Alice, 'without pictures or conversations?'

The Church is not fully Church if it lacks dialogue.

The ever-changing reality in the midst of which we live should awaken us to the possibility of an uninterrupted dialogue with God. By this I do not mean continuous "talk," or a frivolously conversational form of affective prayer which is sometimes cultivated in convents, but a dialogue of love and of choice. A dialogue of deep wills.

Means and Ends The purpose of a fish trap Is to catch fish, And when the fish are caught The trap is forgotten. The purpose of a rabbit snare Is to catch rabbits. When the rabbits are caught The snare is forgotten. The purpose of words Is to convey ideas. When the ideas are grasped The words are forgotten. Where can I find a man Who has forgotten words? He is the one I would like to talk to.

The first step in identifying "heresy" is to refuse all identifications with the subjective intuitions and experience of the "heretic," and to see his words only in an impersonal realm in which there is no dialogue - in which dialogue is denied a priori .