From the category archives:

Communication Quotes

Communication Theories Worsen Communication

“ Our existing models of communication are less an analysis than a contribution to the chaos of modern culture, and in important ways we are paying the penalty for the long abuse of fundamental, communicative processes in the service of politics, trade, and therapy.”1 This is a wonderful book that I reread at least annually.  [...]

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Cross-Cultural Communication Requires Cultural Roots

“I do believe that it is precisely rootedness which gives you ease in multilingual expression or participation in dancing intercourse with very different cultures.  Only when one’s roots are cut or denied or considered as something secondary does the search for the so-called identity, for some kind of inner fitting of the individual upon itself, [...]

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Authors Need Approval

“Everybody needs approval, but nobody needs it more than authors: approval of editorial alterations of manuscripts; approval of cover art and copy; approval over reprint, book-club, and foreign licenses; approval of titles, ad texts, and more.”1 I work with quite a few aspiring book authors and I find that many are easily hurt by criticism [...]

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Mutual Communication

The Protestant Reformer John Calvin used the term “mutual communication” to refer to mutual service rather than selfish careerism.  “It is not enough when a man can say, ‘Oh, I labor, I have my craft,’ or ‘I have such a trade.’  That is not enough.  But we must see whether it is good and profitable [...]

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Loving Strangers

“Christian teaching … in the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:30-37) would say … love can and should be shown not only to those close to us but also to casual acquaintances and strangers, to those one merely stumbles upon.” — Walter J. Ong, The Presence of the Word: Some Prolegomena for Cultural and [...]

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The Power of Speech vs. Writing

“Few people fail to communicate their messages and much of themselves in speech, whereas writings, unless produced by one with literary gifts, carry little of the writer and are interpreted far more according to the reader’s understanding or prejudice.” — J. C. Carothers, “Culture, Psychiatry, and the Written Word,” Psychiatry, 22 (1959), 311.

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