Form'd by thy converse, happily steer
From grave to gay, from lively to severe.

Form'd by thy converse, happily steer
From grave to gay, from lively to severe.

Conversation may be compared to a lyre with seven chords - philosophy, art, poetry, love, scandal, and the weather.

Conversation may be compared to a lyre with seven chords - philosophy, art, poetry, love, scandal, and the weather.

Conversation should be pleasant without scurrility, witty without affectation, free without indecency, learned without conceitedness, novel without falsehood

Conversation should be pleasant without scurrility, witty without affectation, free without indecency, learned without conceitedness, novel without falsehood

With thee conversing I forget all time:
All seasons and their change, all please alike.

With thee conversing I forget all time:
All seasons and their change, all please alike.

I never, with important air,
In conversation overbear.
. . . .
My tongue read more

I never, with important air,
In conversation overbear.
. . . .
My tongue within my lips I rein;
For who talks much must talk in vain.

A single conversation across the table with a wise man is better
than ten years' study of books.

A single conversation across the table with a wise man is better
than ten years' study of books.

And when you stick on conversation's burs,
Don't strew your pathway with those dreadful urs.

And when you stick on conversation's burs,
Don't strew your pathway with those dreadful urs.

Method is not less requisite in ordinary conversation than in
writing, provided a man would talk to make himself read more

Method is not less requisite in ordinary conversation than in
writing, provided a man would talk to make himself understood.

Discourse, the sweeter banquet of the mind.

Discourse, the sweeter banquet of the mind.