The Greatest Conversationalists of All Time

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Great conversationalists are often, but not always, great talkers. The men and women honored here stand out for the way they fostered great conversation—as brilliant speakers, as powerful listeners, or as figures who masterfully facilitated the exchange of ideas. Drawing upon the wisdom, skill, and joie de vivre they brought to the simple act of talking, we can all learn a thing or two about the art of conversation.

SOCRATES (469–399 B.C.E.)
This Athenian gadfly transformed casual conversations into full-blown quests for philosophical truth—without leaving anyone behind. Gregarious and tactful, he urged his compatriots on to new insights about big topics—the nature of love, the meaning of courage, the perfect society. In some of Socrates’ dialogues recorded by his pupil Plato, he manipulates the conversation to prove his own point of view; the famous Republic is a case in point. But in others, notably the Lysis and Laches, he genially helps his friends strip their own ideas of the inessential, the obvious, and the dull until only the incandescent glow of clear thought remains.

THE SEVEN SAGES OF THE BAMBOO GROVE (circa 250 C.E.)
China’s Han Dynasty collapsed in 220, ushering in a period of political chaos. A number of artists and intellectuals "dropped out" to pursue Taoist philosophy, eccentric behavior, and "pure talk" (ch’ing-t’an)—conversation that prized wit, unconventional opinions, and skill in debate. The most famous of these gatherings took place in a bamboo grove north of the city of Loyang—a confab of seven youthful "sages" that included the brilliant musician and debater Hsi K’ang and the often-inebriated Liu Ling, who liked to invite friends to his house, remove his clothes, and declare, "I take the rooms of my house for my pants and coat! What are you gentlemen doing in my pants?"

MARTIN LUTHER (1483–1546)
The reformer was a daring theologian, a tireless pamphleteer—and a terrific talker, too, if the 6,596 entries in the posthumously compiled collection of his pronouncements, Table Talk, are anything to go by. At his dinner table in Wittenberg, surrounded by students and friends, Luther chatted in earthy style about everything from the human soul to the frogs in the Elbe River. He also showed a deep, almost therapeutic empathy with people. Introduced once to a "melancholic" (neurotic) who compulsively crowed like a cock, Luther crowed along with him, for seven days. On the eighth, he announced, "I no longer have to crow—and neither do you." The man was cured.

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