"Talk ought always to run obliquely, not nose to nose with no chance of mental escape"
About this Quote
Conversation, Colby insists, should have an exit ramp. “Obliquely” is a wonderfully geometric insult: it treats straight-ahead talk as a kind of conversational headbutt, “nose to nose,” where every sentence becomes a demand for agreement, rebuttal, or surrender. The line isn’t really about small talk versus serious talk; it’s about the psychological space that makes seriousness possible without turning it into a brawl.
As an educator, Colby is quietly diagnosing a classroom and civic problem at once. Direct confrontation can feel efficient, even virtuous - the modern ideal of “just say what you mean.” But he’s pointing to how that posture can trap minds. When there’s “no chance of mental escape,” people stop thinking and start defending. Oblique talk, by contrast, uses indirection as a tool: humor, analogy, story, side routes. It gives listeners room to reconsider without losing face, and it invites curiosity instead of compliance.
The subtext is that good dialogue is less like fencing and more like jazz: meaning emerges from angles, not collisions. Colby’s phrasing also smuggles in a critique of moralistic discourse, where being “right” becomes more important than keeping another person mentally present. In an era when education was increasingly systematized and debate prized, he’s arguing for civility not as politeness, but as cognitive mercy - a style of speaking that leaves people free enough to change their minds.
As an educator, Colby is quietly diagnosing a classroom and civic problem at once. Direct confrontation can feel efficient, even virtuous - the modern ideal of “just say what you mean.” But he’s pointing to how that posture can trap minds. When there’s “no chance of mental escape,” people stop thinking and start defending. Oblique talk, by contrast, uses indirection as a tool: humor, analogy, story, side routes. It gives listeners room to reconsider without losing face, and it invites curiosity instead of compliance.
The subtext is that good dialogue is less like fencing and more like jazz: meaning emerges from angles, not collisions. Colby’s phrasing also smuggles in a critique of moralistic discourse, where being “right” becomes more important than keeping another person mentally present. In an era when education was increasingly systematized and debate prized, he’s arguing for civility not as politeness, but as cognitive mercy - a style of speaking that leaves people free enough to change their minds.
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| Topic | Witty One-Liners |
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