Hints Toward an Essay on Conversation (c. 1713) [ Practices ]
… in mixing them, that for some thousands of years men have despaired of reducing their schemes to perfection: but, in conversation, it is, or might be otherwise; for here we are only to avoid a multitude of errours, which, although a … for want of which it remains as mere an idea as the other. Therefore it seems to me, that the truest way to understand conversation, is to know the faults and errours to which it is subject, and from thence every man to form maxims to … the company has heard fifty times before; or, at best, some insipid adventure of the relater. Another general fault in conversation, is that of those who affect to talk of themselves: Some, without any ceremony, will run over the history of …
Conversation | Audience
Anthology