Life & Wisdom Quote by Edward W. Howe

Conversation, Howe implies, is less a meeting of minds than a relay race of egos. The sting of "if he didn't know it was his turn next" turns listening into a purely transactional act: we don’t attend to others because they’re interesting, or because truth might emerge, but because we’re waiting for the conversational microphone to swing back our way. It’s a neat little demolition of polite society’s favorite myth - that we listen out of generosity.

Howe’s intent is both comic and accusatory. He’s not attacking speech so much as the performance economy around it: attention as currency, talk as self-advertisement, dialogue as queueing system. The line works because it refuses the flattering interpretation. Even the apparent compliment ("he would listen to you") is yanked away by the condition. What looks like social harmony is revealed as scheduling.

Subtext: the real subject of most conversations is the self, and the other person is a temporary obstacle between you and your next point. Howe’s "No man" is pointedly broad, the kind of sweeping generalization that signals not careful sociology but satirical diagnosis - a writer’s way of saying, if you’re offended, check whether you’re guilty.

Context matters here: Howe wrote in an era when public oratory, club life, and newspaper opinion-making prized quick wit and dominance. Yet the line reads like a prophecy of modern discourse: panels, podcasts, comment threads, even "active listening" as a tactic. Howe doesn’t just observe rudeness; he exposes the bargain underneath civility.