December 27, 2025

Democracy means government by discussion, but it is only effective if you can stop people talking.

Clement Attlee (1883–1967), British Labour politician and prime minister, Speech at Oxford, 14 June 1957, in The Times, 15 June 1957

Are you in love with the sound of your own voice? Or can you speak intelligently, persuasively, and engagingly at no great length? Is not the latter to be preferred?

Avoid the mistakes that mark ineffective discussion: repeating the same argument over and over, calling into question the motives of other speakers, attempting what Americans call a “filibuster”—surely the antithesis of representative democracy.