Careful Words

conversation (n.)

  Tom Birch is as brisk as a bee in conversation; but no sooner does he take a pen in his hand than it becomes a torpedo to him, and benumbs all his faculties.

Samuel Johnson (1709-1784): Life of Johnson (Boswell). Vol. i. Chap. vii. 1743.

Horatio, thou art e'en as just a man

As e'er my conversation coped withal.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Hamlet. Act iii. Sc. 2.

  His conversation does not show the minute-hand, but he strikes the hour very correctly.

Samuel Johnson (1709-1784): Johnsoniana. Kearsley. 604.

  Macaulay is like a book in breeches. . . . He has occasional flashes of silence, that make his conversation perfectly delightful.

Sydney Smith (1769-1845): Lady Holland's Memoir. Vol. i. p. 363.

  Questioning is not the mode of conversation among gentlemen.

Samuel Johnson (1709-1784): Life of Johnson (Boswell). Vol. vi. Chap. iv. 1776.