50 Inspiring Communication Quotes to Elevate Your Conversations

"I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel."

- Maya Angelou

"Listen with curiosity. Speak with honesty. Act with integrity. The greatest problem with communication is we don’t listen to understand. We listen to reply. When we listen with curiosity, we don’t listen with the intent to reply. We listen for what’s behind the words."

- Roy T. Bennett

"Effective teamwork begins and ends with communication."

- Mike Krzyzewski

"If you just communicate, you can get by. But if you communicate skillfully, you can work miracles."

- Jim Rohn

"Great leaders communicate and great communicators lead."

- Simon Sinek

"Leadership is not about being in charge. It's about taking care of those in your charge."

- Simon Sinek

"The way we communicate with others and with ourselves ultimately determines the quality of our lives."

- Tony Robbins

"Alone, we can do so little; together we can do so much."

- Helen Keller

"Communication is not about saying what we think. Communication is about ensuring others hear what we mean."

- Simon Sinek

"Effective communication starts with listening."

- Simon Sinek

"Great communication begins with connection."

- Oprah Winfrey

"How well we communicate is not determined by how well we say things but how well we are understood."

- Andrew Grove

"Being able to effectively communicate is the most important skill any leader can possess."

- Richard Branson

"The great enemy of communication, we find, is the illusion of it."

- William H. Whyte

"The way a team plays as a whole determines its success. You may have the greatest bunch of individual stars in the world, but if they don’t play together, the club won’t be worth a dime."

- Babe Ruth

"Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success."

- Henry Ford

"The strength of the team is each individual member. The strength of each member is the team."

- Phil Jackson

"In teamwork, silence isn’t golden, it’s deadly."

- Mark Sanborn

"Great things in business are never done by one person. They’re done by a team of people."

- Steve Jobs

"Unity is strength…when there is teamwork and collaboration, wonderful things can be achieved."

- Mattie Stepanek

"When people talk, listen completely. Most people never listen."

- Ernest Hemingway

"The most important thing in communication is hearing what isn’t being said. The art of reading between the lines is a lifelong quest of the wise."

- Shannon L. Alder

"There is only one rule for being a good talker—learn to listen."

- Christopher Morley

"We are stronger when we listen and smarter when we share."

- Rania Al-Abdullah

"The art of communication is the language of leadership."

- James Humes

"The more we learn about effective communication, the better we’ll be at leading, as our directives will be better understood."

- Paul Jarvis

"Communication is the real work of leadership."

- Nitin Nohria

"As you navigate through the rest of your life, be open to collaboration. Other people and other people’s ideas are often better than your own. Find a group of people who challenge and inspire you, spend a lot of time with them, and it will change your life."

- Amy Poehler

"The fun for me in collaboration is, one, working with other people just makes you smarter; that’s proven."

- Lin-Manuel Miranda

"The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place."

- George Bernard Shaw

"Effective communication is the best way to solve problems."

- Bradford Winters

"When the trust account is high, communication is easy, instant, and effective."

- Stephen Covey

"Nothing in life is more important than the ability to communicate effectively."

- Gerald R. Ford

"Surround yourself with smart and talented people; collaboration is key."

- Steve Chen

"You need to set a tone at the top that inspires trust – and encourages open and honest 2-way communication. So you hear the brutal facts, and you listen to the good news and the bad news – so that, in the spirit of continuous improvement, you can make changes."

- Denise Morrison

"To effectively communicate, we must realize that we are all different in the way we perceive the world and use this understanding as a guide to our communication with others."

- Tony Robbins

"I think making sure our culture promotes telling the truth is incredibly important."

- Mary Barra

"People are really capable if you’re able to give them the confidence to get something done and paint the picture of where we need to go."

- Lisa Su

"Excellent communication doesn’t just happen naturally. It is a product of process, skill, climate, relationship and hard work."

- Pat McMillan

"The two words ‘information’ and ‘communication’ are often used interchangeably, but they signify quite different things. Information is giving out; communication is getting through."

- Sydney J. Harris

"Practice the pause. Pause before judging. Pause before assuming. Pause before accusing. Pause whenever you’re about to react harshly and you’ll avoid doing and saying things you’ll later regret."

- Lori Deschene

"The success of your presentation will be judged not by the knowledge you send but by what the listener receives."

- Lilly Walters

"The time to build a network is always before you need one."

- Douglas Conant

"Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless."

- Mother Teresa

"Teamwork begins by building trust. And the only way to do that is to overcome our need for invulnerability."

- Patrick Lencioni

"The way you communicate is a direct reflection of how you feel about others."

- Brian Tracy

"To effectively communicate, we must realize that we are all different in the way we perceive the world."

- Tony Robbins

"Communication works for those who work at it."

- John Powell

"You can have brilliant ideas, but if you can’t get them across, your ideas won’t get you anywhere."

- Lee Iacocca

"The most basic of all human needs is the need to understand and be understood. The best way to understand people is to listen to them."

- Ralph G. Nichols

"I suppose leadership at one time meant muscles, but today, it means getting along with people."

- Mahatma Gandhi

"It takes two to speak the truth—one to speak and another to hear."

- Henry David Thoreau

"Communication is the bridge between confusion and clarity."

- Nat Turner

"The best way to inspire people to superior performance is to convince them by everything you do and by your everyday attitude that you're wholeheartedly supporting them."

- Harold S. Geneen

"The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter—’tis the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning."

- Mark Twain

"The most important thing in communication is to hear what isn’t being said."

- Peter Drucker

"A person’s success in life can usually be measured by the number of uncomfortable conversations they are willing to have."

- Timothy Ferriss

"The way we communicate with others and ourselves ultimately determines the quality of our lives."

- Tony Robbins

"If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough."

- Albert Einstein

"Communication is the solvent of all problems and is the foundation for personal development."

- Peter Shepherd

"We have two ears and one mouth so that we can listen twice as much as we speak."

- Epictetus

"Communication is a skill that you can learn. It’s like riding a bicycle or typing. If you’re willing to work at it, you can rapidly improve the quality of every part of your life."

- Brian Tracy

"The most important thing in communication is hearing what isn’t said."

- Peter Drucker

"The art of communication is the most important skill any leader can possess."

- Richard Branson

"Effective communication is about understanding and being understood."

- Oprah Winfrey

"The quality of your communication will make a profound difference in how you are perceived by others and how successful you are."

- Jonathan Gron

"You can’t be heard if you’re not communicating."

- Gary Vaynerchuk

"The way you communicate in business affects your daily productivity, customer relationships, and employee engagement."

- Sheryl Sandberg

"Now’s the time to communicate, commit to your team and customers’ safety, and invest in the community that supports you."

- Grant Freeman

"I realized I was more convincing to myself and to the people who were listening when I actually said what I thought, versus what I thought people wanted to hear me say."

- Ursula Burns

"Good decisions can turn into disasters when communicated poorly."

- Dianna Booher

"The work here isn’t to figure out why they didn’t like you, or who’s right and who’s wrong. It’s to practice being okay with the idea that there are some people who will get you and some people who won’t…and that’s fine."

- Reshma Saujani

"Before blogs, it was all about physical presence. We used to send out videos and audiotapes to communicate. Blogging and the Internet allow us to engage in a lot more real time conversations as opposed to a one-way dump of information or a message."

- Indra Nooyi

"Effective communication is 20% what you know and 80% how you feel about what you know."

- Jim Rohn

"It’s not what you say, but how you say it that counts."

- Mary Kay Ash

"In an online world, our online words are our emissaries; they tell the world who we are."

- Ann Handley

"My mother had a definite influence on my leadership style. She would say that whenever you run into challenges or you’re trying to make things happen, you’ve got to understand what makes people tick, what motivates them."

- Shellye Archambeau

"Something counterintuitive that I have observed is that showing vulnerability as a leader can often be a sign of strength."

- Anjali Sud

"I believe in manifesting the words that are coming out of my mouth. I’m very careful with what I say because the intention is then out in the universe."

- Bozoma Saint John

"In teamwork, silence isn’t golden; it’s deadly."

- Mark Sanborn

"I think social media, it in a way forces companies to be more authentic or more transparent because it gives a voice to the consumer and a reach to the consumer that they didn’t have before."

- Padmasree Warrior

"Constantly talking isn’t necessarily communicating."

- Charlie Kaufman

"Invariably, collaboration leads to new forms of self-expression and to the things that move you."

- Rodney Crowell

"When I began my role at the Dallas Mavericks, I made time to talk to every single employee. I asked them to tell me their story. Some of them would start with, ‘Well my name is and my title is…’ And I would say, ‘Tell me where you’re from. Where did you grow up? Who are you?’ I wanted to understand who they really are and where they came from."

- Cynt Marshall

"The way I go about it is that we should all be inviting people into our lives who don’t look like us, speak like us, and don’t come from where we come from."

- Mellody Hobson

"Don’t be silent in the room. Even if you think you’re gonna make a mistake, that’s better than sitting there quiet because you begin to suffocate… So just get it out there and feel like you have value."

- Rosalind Brewer

"If we are to succeed, we must communicate."

- Bob Johnson

"Communication leads to community, that is, to understanding, intimacy, and mutual valuing."

- Rollo May

"The kinds of errors that cause plane crashes are invariably errors of teamwork and communication."

- Malcolm Gladwell

"In the last analysis, what we are communicates far more eloquently than anything we say or do. We all know it. There are people we trust absolutely because we know their character."

- Stephen Covey

"I remind myself every morning: Nothing I say this day will teach me anything. So if I’m going to learn, I must do it by listening."

- Larry King

"The art of effective listening is essential to clear communication, and clear communication is necessary to management success."

- James Cash Penney

"People may hear your words, but they feel your attitude."

- John C. Maxwell

"The two words information and communication are often used interchangeably, but they signify quite different things. Information is giving out; communication is getting through."

- Sydney Harris

"Say what you mean, and mean what you say."

- George S. Patton

"If you care about being thought credible and intelligent, do not use complex language where simpler language will do."

- Daniel Kahneman

"Think like a wise [person] but communicate in the language of the people."

- William Butler Yeats

"Most of the successful people I’ve known are the ones who do more listening than talking."

- Bernard Baruch

"The most important things are the hardest to say because words diminish them."

- Stephen King

"Asking a deep question should feel like sharing. It should feel, a bit, like we’re revealing something about ourselves when we ask a deep question. This feeling might give us pause. But studies show people are nearly always happy to have been asked, and to have answered, a deep question."

- Charles Duhigg

"Take the time to deliberate, but when the time for action comes, stop thinking and go in."

- Napoleon Bonaparte

"Silence is a form of communication, too. Sometimes less is more."

- Pat Summitt

"Speak when you are angry — and you’ll make the best speech you’ll ever regret."

- Laurence Peters

"Pay less attention to what men say. Just watch what they do."

- Dale Carnegie

"One of the best lessons you can learn in life is to master how to remain calm."

- Catherine Pulsifer

"I’m always one to ask the second and third question."

- Thasunda Brown Duckett

"Another key trend is that consumers live on their smartphones and expect the same level of service from a small business that they receive from Amazon, Uber, or Domino’s – informational transparency, automated communications, and seamless interactivity."

- Joe Walsh

"The ABCs are attitude, behavior, and communication skills."

- Gerald Chertavian

"Half the world is composed of people who have something to say and can’t, and the other half who have nothing to say and keep on saying it."

- Robert Frost

"Good communication is as stimulating as black coffee and just as hard to sleep after."

- Anne Morrow Lindbergh

"Just so everyone knows, we’re not a photo-sharing company. I don’t see photos on ‘Instagram’ as art. They’re much more about communication."

- Kevin Systrom

"Science may never come up with a better office communication system than the coffee break."

- Earl Wilson