--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: It's not 'natural' to speak well…" description: "\"It's not 'natural' to speak well, eloquently, in an interesting, articulate way. People living in groups, families, communes say little - have few verb..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/426/susan-sontag-332_communes_it-s-not-natural-to-speak-well-eloquentl_779737.jpg" --- # It's not 'natural' to speak well, eloquently, in an… ![“It's not 'natural' to speak well, eloquently, in an interesting, articulate way. People living in groups, families, communes say little - have few verbal means. Eloquence - thinking in words - is a byproduct of solitude, deracination, a heightened painful individuality. In groups, it's more…” quote by Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/426/susan-sontag-332_communes_it-s-not-natural-to-speak-well-eloquentl_779737.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/426/susan-sontag-332_communes_it-s-not-natural-to-speak-well-eloquentl_779737.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/426/susan-sontag-332_communes_it-s-not-natural-to-speak-well-eloquentl_779737.jpg) > “It's not 'natural' to speak well, eloquently, in an interesting, articulate way. People living in groups, families, communes say little - have few verbal means. Eloquence - thinking in words - is a byproduct of solitude, deracination, a heightened painful individuality. In groups, it's more natural to sing, to dance, to pray: given, rather than invented (individual) speech.” [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. Argues that eloquent speech emerges from solitude and individual struggle, not communal habits. **In simple terms:** Solitude breeds thoughtful speech. Key Takeaway Cultivate reflective time for deeper expression. Themes language solitude creativity culture Mood contemplative analytical Type philosophical critical When to use this quote - writing retreats - solo research - personal journaling - creative workshops Key Concepts individualism artistic expression Questions to Reflect On - How does solitude shape your voice? - Can group interaction also foster eloquence? A Different Perspective May undervalue communal oral traditions and shared knowledge. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Communes](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/communes/) [Communication](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/communication/) [Eloquence](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/eloquence/) [Eloquence Thinking](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/eloquence-thinking-6010685/) [Family](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/family/) [Given](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/given/) [Groups](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/groups/) [Individual](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/individual/) [Individual Speech](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/individual-speech-3556351/) [Individuality](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/individuality/) [Interesting](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/interesting/) [Littles](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/littles/) [Mean](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/mean/) [Means Eloquence](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/means-eloquence-6010684/) [Natural](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/natural/) [Painful](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/painful/) [People](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/people/) [Praying](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/praying/) [Solitude](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/solitude/) [Speak](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/speak/) [Speak Eloquently](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/speak-eloquently-1363118/) [Speech](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/speech/) [Thinking](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/thinking/) [Way](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/way/) [Wells](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/wells/) ## Related quotes > [We cannot sanction the view that the Constitution, while solicitous of the cognitive content of individual speech, has little or no regard for that…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-marshall-harlan-ii/we-cannot-sanction-the-view-that-the-constitution-while-solicitous-of/) [John Marshall Harlan II](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-marshall-harlan-ii/) > [“      “There is a sacredness in tears. They are not the mark of weakness, but of power. They speak more eloquently than…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jamie-magee/there-is-a-sacredness-in-tears-they-are-not-the-mark-of-weakness-but-3/) [Jamie Magee](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jamie-magee/) > [We all speak the same language, but when someone can speak eloquently or with poise, it's striking. I like that.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/melody-gardot/we-all-speak-the-same-language-but-when-someone-can-speak-eloquently/) [Melody Gardot](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/melody-gardot/) > [Words impress me. If a man can speak eloquently and beautifully to me, I just melt on the floor.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/catherine-zeta-jones/words-impress-me-if-a-man-can-speak-eloquently-and-beautifully-to-me/) [Catherine Zeta-Jones](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/catherine-zeta-jones/) > [“There is a sacredness in tears. They are not a mark of weakness, but of power. They speak more eloquently than ten thousand tongues.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/washington-irving/there-is-a-sacredness-in-tears-they-are-not-a-mark-of-weakness-but-of/) [Washington Irving](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/washington-irving/) > [“There are melodies that speak as eloquently as words, that flow logically and inevitably from a single, pure emotion.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rachel-hartman/there-are-melodies-that-speak-as-eloquently-as-words-that-flow/) [Rachel Hartman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rachel-hartman/) > [Back in the 60s, San Francisco artists lived in communes.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gedde-watanabe/back-in-the-60s-san-francisco-artists-lived-in-communes/) [Gedde Watanabe](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gedde-watanabe/) > [The psalms, like no other literature, lift us to a position where we can commune with God, capturing a sense of the greatness of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gordon-fee/the-psalms-like-no-other-literature-lift-us-to-a-position-where-we/) [Gordon Fee](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gordon-fee/) > [Anyone who says that economic security is a human right, has been to much babied. While he babbles, other men are risking and losing…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rose-wilder-lane/anyone-who-says-that-economic-security-is-a-human-right-has-been-to/) [Rose Wilder Lane](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rose-wilder-lane/) > [When we commune with the spirit within and ask for new ideas, they are always forthcoming.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/charles-fillmore/when-we-commune-with-the-spirit-within-and-ask-for-new-ideas-they-are/) [Charles Fillmore](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/charles-fillmore/) > [Atheism in legislation, indifference in matters of religion, and the pernicious maxims which go under the name of Liberal Catholicism are the true causes…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pope-pius-ix/atheism-in-legislation-indifference-in-matters-of-religion-and-the/) [Pope Pius IX](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pope-pius-ix/) > [The heart communes best when it does not try to speak.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/margaret-weis/the-heart-communes-best-when-it-does-not-try-to-speak/) [Margaret Weis](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/margaret-weis/) > [Model communes are the ones where the leaders lie the best and the biggest.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lisa-see/model-communes-are-the-ones-where-the-leaders-lie-the-best-and-the/) [Lisa See](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lisa-see/) > [It is a most wonderful comfort to sit alone beneath a lamp, book spread before you, and commune with someone from the past whom…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/yoshida-kenk/it-is-a-most-wonderful-comfort-to-sit-alone-beneath-a-lamp-book/) [Yoshida Kenko](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/yoshida-kenk/) > [Money should not be in the hands of individuals; otherwise it will create this problem of being burdened with guilt. And money can make…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rajneesh/money-should-not-be-in-the-hands-of-individuals-otherwise-it-will/) [Rajneesh](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rajneesh/) ## More by Susan Sontag > [the appetite for thinking must be regulated, as all sensible people know, for it may stifle one's life.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/the-appetite-for-thinking-must-be-regulated-as-all-sensible-people/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [We are ruled by quotations.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/we-are-ruled-by-quotations/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [Unfortunately, moral beauty in art - like physical beauty in a person - is extremely perishable. It is nowhere so durable as artistic or…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/unfortunately-moral-beauty-in-art-like-physical-beauty-in-a-person-is/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [Like the collector, the photographer is animated by a passion that, even when it appears to be for the present, is linked to a…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/like-the-collector-the-photographer-is-animated-by-a-passion-that/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [ Anthropology has always struggled with an intense, fascinated repulsion towards its subject… \[The anthropologist\] submits himself to the exotic to confirm his own inner… ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/anthropology-has-always-struggled-with-an-intense-fascinated/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [“Why not eliminate schooling between age 12-16? It’s biologically + psychologically too turbulent a time to be cooped up inside, made to sit all…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/why-not-eliminate-schooling-between-age-12-16-it-s-biologically/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [To photograph people is to violate them, by seeing them as they never see themselves, by having knowledge of them that they can never…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/to-photograph-people-is-to-violate-them-by-seeing-them-as-they-never/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [One set of messages of the society we live in is: Consume. Grow. Do what you want. Amuse yourselves. The very working of this…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/one-set-of-messages-of-the-society-we-live-in-is-consume-grow-do-what/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [Currently intellectuals in Western Europe and North America are extremely demoralized and shaken by the rise of a virulent conservative tendency (which some have…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/currently-intellectuals-in-western-europe-and-north-america-are/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [With the modern diseases (once TB, now cancer) the romantic idea that the disease expresses the character is invariably extended to assert that the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/with-the-modern-diseases-once-tb-now-cancer-the-romantic-idea-that/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [As objects of contemplation, images of the atrocious can answer to several different needs. To steel oneself against weakness. To make oneself more numb.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/as-objects-of-contemplation-images-of-the-atrocious-can-answer-to/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [The creative phase of an idea coincides with the period during which it insists, cantankerously, on its boundaries, on what makes it different; but…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/the-creative-phase-of-an-idea-coincides-with-the-period-during-which/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [Photographs objectify: they turn an event or a person into something that can be possessed.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/photographs-objectify-they-turn-an-event-or-a-person-into-something/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [I'm not interested in giving aid and comfort to the neo­-Conservatives.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/i-m-not-interested-in-giving-aid-and-comfort-to-the-neo-conservatives/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [The feminist movement has been important to me because it's made me feel less odd and also because it has made me understand some…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/the-feminist-movement-has-been-important-to-me-because-it-s-made-me/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) [Explore all 644 Susan Sontag quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) ## More Communes quotes > [Money should not be in the hands of individuals; otherwise it will create this problem of being burdened with guilt. And money can make…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rajneesh/money-should-not-be-in-the-hands-of-individuals-otherwise-it-will/) [Rajneesh](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rajneesh/) > [It is a most wonderful comfort to sit alone beneath a lamp, book spread before you, and commune with someone from the past whom…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/yoshida-kenk/it-is-a-most-wonderful-comfort-to-sit-alone-beneath-a-lamp-book/) [Yoshida Kenko](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/yoshida-kenk/) > [Model communes are the ones where the leaders lie the best and the biggest.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lisa-see/model-communes-are-the-ones-where-the-leaders-lie-the-best-and-the/) [Lisa See](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lisa-see/) > [The heart communes best when it does not try to speak.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/margaret-weis/the-heart-communes-best-when-it-does-not-try-to-speak/) [Margaret Weis](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/margaret-weis/) > [Atheism in legislation, indifference in matters of religion, and the pernicious maxims which go under the name of Liberal Catholicism are the true causes…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pope-pius-ix/atheism-in-legislation-indifference-in-matters-of-religion-and-the/) [Pope Pius IX](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pope-pius-ix/) > [When we commune with the spirit within and ask for new ideas, they are always forthcoming.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/charles-fillmore/when-we-commune-with-the-spirit-within-and-ask-for-new-ideas-they-are/) [Charles Fillmore](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/charles-fillmore/) > [Anyone who says that economic security is a human right, has been to much babied. While he babbles, other men are risking and losing…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rose-wilder-lane/anyone-who-says-that-economic-security-is-a-human-right-has-been-to/) [Rose Wilder Lane](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rose-wilder-lane/) > [The psalms, like no other literature, lift us to a position where we can commune with God, capturing a sense of the greatness of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gordon-fee/the-psalms-like-no-other-literature-lift-us-to-a-position-where-we/) [Gordon Fee](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gordon-fee/) > [Back in the 60s, San Francisco artists lived in communes.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gedde-watanabe/back-in-the-60s-san-francisco-artists-lived-in-communes/) [Gedde Watanabe](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gedde-watanabe/) > [The older I get, the more of a recluse I turn into. I love the social aspect of my work. It’s like a commune…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ben-daniels/the-older-i-get-the-more-of-a-recluse-i-turn-into-i-love-the-social/) [Ben Daniels](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ben-daniels/) > [In 1980, Osho left India for America. I, like many other sannyasins, moved to Oregon where work had begun on the 'new commune'. Osho…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/swami-anand-milarepa/in-1980-osho-left-india-for-america-i-like-many-other-sannyasins/) [Swami Anand Milarepa](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/swami-anand-milarepa/) > [When I look back at my past and the way I grew up, I grew up on communes. That was meant to be.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-carlyle/when-i-look-back-at-my-past-and-the-way-i-grew-up-i-grew-up-on/) [Robert Carlyle](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-carlyle/) > [I went over to see Marina two or three or four times a week. I knew as long as I could see the girl…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/charles-bukowski/i-went-over-to-see-marina-two-or-three-or-four-times-a-week-i-knew-as/) [Charles Bukowski](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/charles-bukowski/) > [Thanks to music I have found a deeper connection to an otherwise elusive God. Thru music I get to commune directly, and daily. On…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jason-mraz/thanks-to-music-i-have-found-a-deeper-connection-to-an-otherwise/) [Jason Mraz](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jason-mraz/) > [Sometimes I feel people think I live on a commune but I don't. We are all solar, though. There are no power lines. It's…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/woody-harrelson/sometimes-i-feel-people-think-i-live-on-a-commune-but-i-don-t-we-are/) [Woody Harrelson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/woody-harrelson/) [Browse all 108 Communes quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/communes/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "It's not 'natural' to speak well, eloquently, in an interesting, articulate way. People living in groups, families, communes say little - have few verbal means. Eloquence - thinking in words - is a byproduct of solitude, deracination, a heightened painful individuality. 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