Table-Talk Forbidden

Augustine encouraged conversation at meals--but with a strictly enforced rule that the character of an absent person should never be negatively discussed. ...

The Top 10 "Last Words in Your Church"

Pastoral lines you may not be around long enough to regret

Sometimes words have to be eaten. Other times, they turn out to have teeth that bite. From an ...

The Truth Within

The author who benefits you most is not the one who tells you something you did not know before, but the one who gives expression to the truth that has ...

What Is Conversation?

When men and women refer to "conversation," they might not be talking about the same thing at all, observes communication theorist Deborah Tannen: ...

How to Fix Communication

Figure out what went wrong, not who was wrong, when communication breaks down.

Damaging Criticism

A man who is continually criticized becomes good for nothing, the effect of criticism knocks all the gumption and power out of him.

Constructive Criticism

"Criticism," said Ralph Waldo Emerson, "should not be querulous and wasting, all knife and root-puller, but guiding, instructive, inspiring--a ...

Thoughts into Words

To know how to say what other people only think, is what makes men poets and sages; and to dare to say what others only dare to think, makes men martyrs ...

Words Worth Remembering?

Consider this paradox: Almost everything that is publicly said these days is recorded. Almost nothing of what is said is worth remembering.

Not What You Say, but How

Ninety percent of the friction of daily life is caused by the wrong tone of voice.