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Cognition

43 Quotes on Body Language

Learn some words on ... not using words.

Here, people use words to describe ... not using words. Enjoy.

1. "What you do speaks so loud that I cannot hear what you say." –Ralph Waldo Emerson

2. "The most important thing in communication is hearing what isn't said." –Peter F. Drucker

3. "Electric communication will never be a substitute for the face of someone who with their soul encourages another person to be brave and true." –Charles Dickens

4. "The human body is the best picture of the human soul." –Ludwig Wittgenstein

5. "But behavior in the human being is sometimes a defense, a way of concealing motives and thoughts, as language can be a way of hiding your thoughts and preventing communication." –Abraham Maslow

6. "Who is Mike Judge? Let me think. The only way I could possibly answer that question would be in a nonverbal fashion. I think I could do an interpretive dance that would answer that question for you." –Mike Judge

7. "Body language is essential for an actress, even if you don't use your body in an athletic way. Just to be free, to use it like your voice. A body can be small and have incredible violence. A body talks." –Anne Parillau

8. "Body language is a very powerful tool. We had body language before we had speech, and apparently, 80% of what you understand in a conversation is read through the body, not the words." –Deborah Bull

9. "Get in touch with the way the other person feels. Feelings are 55% body language, 38% tone, and 7% words." –Unknown

10. "I speak two languages, Body and English." –Mae West

11. "Fie, fie upon her!
There's language in her eye, her cheek, her lip,
Nay, her foot speaks; her wanton spirits look out
At every joint and motive of her body."
–William Shakespeare

12. "Deafness has left me acutely aware of both the duplicity that language is capable of and the many expressions the body cannot hide." –Terry Galloway

13. "Language is surely too small a vessel to contain these emotions of mind and body that have somehow awakened a response in the spirit." –Radclyffe Hall

14. "Emotion always has its roots in the unconscious and manifests itself in the body." –Irene Claremont de Castillejo

15. "The body never lies." –Martha Graham

16. "Our bodies are apt to be our autobiographies." –Frank Gillette Burgess

17. "You have to think an awful lot about your motivations or people's behavioral intentions or what their body language can indicate or what's really going on or what makes people sometimes do, sometimes, the irrational things they do." –Ron Silver

18. "In this respect, I suppose I'm the total opposite of Garry [Kasparov]. With his very emotive body language at the [chess] board, he shows and displays all his emotions. I don't." –Vladimir Kramnik

19. "I can't just tell the guys I want the ball, I have to do it with my body language." –LaMarcus Aldridge

20. "You can tell a lot by someone's body language." –Harvey Wolter

21. "Kids used to sit back and listen to lectures. Now they're leaning in. Body language has changed." –Mike Harvey

22. "A blur of blinks, taps, jiggles, pivots, and shifts ... the body language of a man wishing urgently to be elsewhere." –Edward R. Murrow

23. "I want guys who want to be here. I want guys who are energetic and passionate. I didn't see any passion from Todd. You could tell from his body language that he didn't want to be here." –Perry Florio

24. "Experienced trial attorneys tend to rely on instinct when picking a jury. You get an idea of the kind of people that you are looking for and pay careful attention to their answers and body language." –James Diamond

25. "Not only is her body language revealing, but so are her silences, which I find remarkable for an actress. It's how she doesn't say things verbally that I find exceedingly communicative." –Laurence Kardish

26. "The mood was terrible. You could see it in everybody's eyes. The body language was just defeated. When they put me in I was hoping I could give us some energy and try to bring us back." –Billy Campbell

27. "I was analyzing the guys' nonverbal communication. I learned that in sociology. When I see that, when I see fatigue, some negative things, you've got to go straight at them." –Glen Davis

28. "There's a constant communication going on when you're dancing, most of it nonverbal. You have to learn to communicate in a different way. For the ladies, you have to learn to follow. That's kind of tough." –Suzanne Perez

29. "Eye rolling is one of the nonverbal signs that is pretty much always aggressive." –Steve Watts

30. "Verbal and nonverbal activity is a unified whole, and theory and methodology should be organized or created to treat it as such." –Kenneth L. Pike

31. "In terms of nonverbal communication, by not seeing the full face—whether it's bangs in the eyes of a woman or a man, or a beard—there can be some who perceive the individual is hiding something." –Judith Rasband

32. "The more elaborate our means of communication, the less we communicate." –Joseph Priestley

33. "The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place." –George Bernard Shaw

34. "Effective communication is 20% what you know and 80% how you feel about what you know." –Jim Rohn

35. "Use non-verbal communication to SOFTEN the hard-line position of others: S = Smile O = Open Posture F = Forward Lean T = Touch E = Eye Contact N = Nod." –Unknown

36. "There are four ways, and only four ways, in which we have contact with the world. We are evaluated and classified by these four contacts: what we do, how we look, what we say, and how we say it." –Dale Carnegie

37. "When the eyes say one thing, and the tongue another, a practiced man relies on the language of the first." –Ralph Waldo Emerson

38. "Dr. Wilson: What exactly did Cuddy tell you?
Dr. House: Nothing that your body language isn't telling me right now." –House

39. "The time to stop talking is when the other person nods his head affirmatively, but says nothing." –Henry S. Haskins

40. "Alex "Hitch" Hitchens: 60% of all human communication is nonverbal body language; 30% is your tone, so that means 90% of what you're saying ain't coming out of your mouth." –Hitch

41. "Ariel: But without my voice, how can I...
Ursula: You'll have your looks, your pretty face. And don't underestimate the importance of body language, ha!" –The Little Mermaid

42. "Virgil: F-Stop, you need to brush up on Body Language 101. Hers says, 'Not-in-this-lifetime.'" –Static Shock

43. "Lorelai: Well, what was his body language like?
Rory: Tall." –Gilmore Girls

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