When is nothing better than something

For a fun, extreme example of this in action, see this video from The Princess Bride. Often your best move in that situation is to keep your mouth shut and simply stay out of their way. We all know these people, right? They ask questions but can't wait for you to finish so they can offer their own viewpoint. Sometimes they don't even bother waiting and instead try to hurry you along with verbal cues-- "uh-huh, uh-huh, right, right, right When they asked for advice, what they really meant was, "Let's fast-forward to the part where I tell you what I think, instead.

To paraphrase baseball great Yogi Berra, you can observe a lot by watching , and you can also learn a lot by listening. A lawyer once told me about selling a client's company. To make a long story short lawyers love that phrase , the negotiation went much more smoothly than she'd expected.

Eventually, she realized this was because some whiz-kid M. That led him to overestimate vastly how much money the acquiring company would likely make after the deal was done. The lawyer was overcome with apprehension, until she realized the right thing to say: nothing at all. That way, she wouldn't be breaching her duty not to misrepresent facts to the buyer, but she also wouldn't do anything to scuttle her client's deal.

The moral of the story is that you don't always have an obligation to correct someone else's mistakes. Silence is awkward. As a result, people often rush to fill it. I used to use this tendency to my advantage when I was a trial attorney taking depositions in civil cases.

Never tell yourself that you "know" an English word or phrase. How to memorize the phrases Why Memorize? My theory of "hook phrases". Sign in via your Institution. You could not be signed in, please check and try again.

Sign in with your library card Please enter your library card number. Search within work. Related Content In this work Half a loaf is better than no bread Abbreviations used in the dictionary Bibliography.

All rights reserved. Sign in to annotate. Sentences Mobile But he would love nothing better than to win the job outright. Expect nothing better than the same rebel yells from that quarter again. There is nothing better than a dead body to make your day, Sindelar would like nothing better than to complete a comeback this weekend. The national media loves nothing better than to report another Boston Massacre.