You don't tell people who disagree with you they'd be better off somewhere else. And you don't reduce them to stereotypes; you address them as fully formed people worthy of respect. You try to persuade them.
Peggy NoonanRead
When you forget yourself and your fear, when you get beyond self-consciousness because your mind is thinking about what you are trying to communicate, you become a better communicator
Interpretation
What this quote means
To improve communication, focus on the message rather than self-doubt.
This quote emphasizes the importance of transcending self-awareness and fear in order to enhance one's ability to communicate effectively. By concentrating on the message you wish to convey rather than on how you are perceived, you can connect more authentically with your audience and become a more effective communicator.
Themes
CommunicationSelf-AwarenessFearMessageConnection
In practice
Example use cases
During a public speaking event, one could use this quote to encourage speakers to focus more on their content than their nerves.
More from Peggy Noonan
All quotes βYou can get so well educated in America that your thoughts become detached from common sense. You can get so complicated in your thinking that the obvious isn't real to you anymore.
Peggy NoonanRead
If you join government, calmly make your contribution and move on. Don't go along to get along; do your best and when you have to - and you will - leave, and be something else.
Peggy NoonanRead
Wit penetrates; humor envelops. Wit is a function of verbal intelligence; humor is imagination operating on good nature.
Peggy NoonanRead
Naps are nature's way of reminding you that life is nice, like a beautiful swinging hammock strung between birth and infinity.
Peggy NoonanRead
We must try again to be alive to what the people of our country really long for in our national life: forgiveness and grace, maturity and wisdom. ...Our political leaders will know our priorities only if we tell them, again and again, and if those priorities begin to show up in the polls.
Peggy NoonanRead
Similar quotes
The truth isn't the truth until people believe you, and they can't believe you if they don't know what you're saying, and they can't know what you're saying if they don't listen to you, and they won't listen to you if you're not interesting, and you won't be interesting unless you say things imaginatively, originally, freshly.
William BernbachRead
You cannot speak that which you do not know. You cannot share that which you do not feel. You cannot translate that which you do not have. And you cannot give that which you do not possess. To give it and to share it, and for it to be effective, you first need to have it. Good communication starts with good preparation.
Jim RohnRead
I don't know the rules of grammar... If you're trying to persuade people to do something, or buy something, it seems to me you should use their language, the language they use every day, the language in which they think. We try to write in the vernacular.
David OgilvyRead
Language commonly stresses only one side of any interaction.
Gregory BatesonRead
I like to listen. I have learned a great deal from listening carefully. Most people never listen.
Ernest HemingwayRead
Individual storytelling is incredibly powerful. We as journalists know intuitively what scientists of the brain are discovering through brain scans, which is that emotional stories tend to open the portals, and that once there's a connection made, people are more open to rational arguments.
Nicholas KristofRead