Shallow Discussion Quotes

Popular presentation today is all too often that which puts the mob in a position to talk about something without understanding it.

Conversationis like the table of contents of a dull book.... All the greatest subjects of human thought are proudly displayedin it. Listen to it for three minutes, and you ask yourself which is more striking, the emphasis of the speaker or his shocking ignorance.

[Mrs. Allen was] never satisfied with the day unless she spent the chief of it by the side of Mrs. Thorpe, in what they called conversation, but in which there was scarcely ever any exchange of opinion, and not often any resemblance of subject, for Mrs. Thorpe talked chiefly of her children, and Mrs. Allen of her gowns.

TV likes you to talk about the superficial.

You just touch on things. You don't go round the room describing the furniture.

I like to talk on TV about those things that aren't worth writing about.

On television, everyone talks and they don't care about the mechanics.

You don't need to go all deep and meaningful and start talking about Daddies. It's yes or no answer.

TV and radio debates seem inflamed, with all that shouting, but real disagreement is always avoided; they conceal their lack of content.

So much of what passes for conversation today is degraded. It's either about one-upmanship, or dreary trivia. Even the cut and thrust of wit and bons mots is a form of bedazzlement designed to stop conversations dead rather than broaden them.