He who seldom speaks, and with one calm well-timed word can strike dumb the loquacious, is a genius or a hero.

A single accurate sentence, placed correctly, can end an argument that volume could not. It works because it is unexpected: the room has adjusted to noise, and something quiet and exact cuts across it. What makes it possible is not wit but restraint, since you can only place a word well if you have kept most of your words unspent.

In the next meeting that runs on, say nothing until you have one sentence worth the interruption. Then say it once, plainly, and do not add a second version of it.