Vada in Theory and Practice: Studies in Debates, Dialogues and Discussions in Indian Intellectual Discourses c7.s5.16

c7.s5.16

⁵ Conversation then, in which the Socratics are the best models, should have these qualities — It should be easy and not in the least dogmatic; it should have spice of wit. And the one who engages in conversation should not debar others from participating in it, as if he is entering upon a private monopoly, but, as in other things so in a general conversation he should think it not unfair for each to have his turn. He should observe, first and foremost, what the subject of conversation is. If it is grave, he should treat it with seriousness, if humorous, with wit. And above all, he should be on watch that his conversation shall not betray some defect in his character. This is most likely to occur, when people in jest or in earnest take delight in making malicious and slanderous statements about the absent, on purpose to injure their reputations. (Cicero, *De Ificiis*, *XXXVII* (Cicero 1913: 134) quoted by Arindam Chakrabarti (2014) in “Just Words: An Ethics of Conversation in Mahābhārata”, in Chakrabarti and Bandhyopadhyaya (eds.) *Mahābhārata Now*, p. 244.)