Quotes about listening

Listening, not imitation, may be the sincerest form of flattery.

— Dr. Joyce Brothers

The less you talk, the more you're listened to.

— Abigail Van Buren

It is a rare person who wants to hear want he doesn't want to hear.

— Dick Cavett

One who cares is one who listens.

— J. Richard Clarke

No one every listened themselves out of a job.

— Calvin Coolidge

Listen. Don't explain or justify.

— William G. Dyer

Nature gave us one tongue and two ears so we could hear twice as much as we speak.

— Epictetus

Only if we can restrain ourselves is good conversation possible. Good talk rises upon much discipline.

— John Erskine

One of the most valuable things we can do to heal one another is listen to each other's stories.

— Rebecca Falls

Listen to life, and you will hear the voice of life crying, Be!

— James Dillet Freeman

The older I grow the more I listen to people who don't talk much.

— Germain G. Glien

A person hears only what they understand.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

People should talk less and draw more. Personally, I would like to renounce speech altogether and, like organic nature, communicate everything I have to say visually.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Never speak of yourself to others; make them talk about themselves instead; therein lies the whole art of pleasing. Everybody knows it, and everyone forgets it.

— Edmond and Jules De Goncourt

I like to listen. I have learned a great deal from listening carefully. Most people never listen.

— Ernest Hemingway

When a woman is speaking to you, listen to what she says with her eyes.

— Victor Hugo

The right to be heard does not automatically include the right to be taken seriously.

— Hubert H. Humphrey

Let others confide in you. It may not help you, but it surely will help them.

— Roger G. Imhoff

So when you are listening to somebody, completely, attentively, then you are listening not only to the words, but also to the feeling of what is being conveyed, to the whole of it, not part of it.

— Jiddu Krishnamurti

Listening well and answering well is one of the greatest perfections that can be obtained in conversation.

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

When I am getting ready to reason with a man, I spend one-third of my time thinking about myself and what I am going to say and two-thirds about him and what he is going to say.

— Abraham Lincoln

Listening well is as powerful a means of communication and influence as to talk well.

— John Marshall

I always had one ear offstage, listening for the call from the bookie.

— Walter Matthau

No one really listens to anyone else, and if you try it for a while you'll see why.

— Mignon McLaughlin

A good listener is not only popular everywhere, but after a while he knows something.

— Wilson Mizner

The word is half his that speaks, and half his that hears it.

— Michel Eyquem De Montaigne

Are you really listening... or are you just waiting for your turn to talk?

— Robert Montgomery

The greatest gift you can give another is the purity of your attention.

— Richard Moss

To be listened to is, generally speaking, a nearly unique experience for most people. It is enormously stimulating. It is small wonder that people who have been demanding all their lives to be heard so often fall speechless when confronted with one who gravely agrees to lend an ear. Man clamors for the freedom to express himself and for knowing that he counts. But once offered these conditions, he becomes frightened.

— Robert C. Murphy

Every person I work with knows something better than me. My job is to listen long enough to find it and use it.

— Jack Nichols

Set up the listening. Prepare who you are talking to for what you want them to hear. Get people to listen as a possibility rather than a problem.

— Mal Pancoast

A new lens to look through. Hear the pain in people's speaking. People who have an ear to hear can hear. You will no longer tolerate what you used to tolerate. A second point of reality. Declare a new future. There are no right answers. There is no is. Give people breakdowns. It's the loving thing to do. What's being revealed here? Dogs don't have things wrong. Wrong disempowers people. Upsets indicate a right that's been violated. Notice when you are angry that you are the only one around. The only constant thing is you. Business is made up. It's invented. We invent our world through language. If it really turns you on, you may want to inform your face. There is no right way. A chair is only a chair because we say it's a chair.

— Mal Pancoast

We only consult the ear because the heart is wanting.

— Blaise Pascal

Never tell your story to a deaf man.

— Proverb

A hungry stomach has no ears.

— Proverb

No one is as deaf as the man who will not listen.

— Jewish Proverb

Give every man your ear, but few thy voice. Take each man's censure, but reserve thy judgment. [Hamlet]

— William Shakespeare

Nature has given us two ears, two eyes, and but one tongue-to the end that we should hear and see more than we speak.

— Socrates

The first duty of love is to listen.

— Paul Tillich

Learn to listen. Opportunity could be knocking at your door very softly.

— Frank Tyger

Be a good listener. Your ears will never get you in trouble.

— Frank Tyger

God gave us two ears and one mouth, so we can hear twice as much as we say.

— Source Unknown

You can judge a good listener by asking the talker at the end of the conversation what the listener's position is on the topic. If the talker doesn't know, then the listener has probably done a good job of listening.

— Source Unknown

When you are in it up to your ears, keep your mouth shut

— Source Unknown

There is only one rule to become a good talker, learn how to listen.

— Source Unknown

Opportunities are often missed because we are broadcasting when we should be listening.

— Source Unknown

One of the hardest things to do in life is to listen without intent to reply.

— Source Unknown

Listening: A wise old owl sat in an oak. The longer he sat, the less he spoke. The less he spoke, the more he heard. Why can't we be like that wise old bird?

— Source Unknown

His thoughts were slow. His words were few and never formed to glisten. But he was a joy to all his friends, you should have heard him LISTEN!

— Source Unknown

Hear much, speak little

— Source Unknown

Skillful listening is the best remedy for loneliness, loquaciousness, and laryngitis.

— William A. Ward

A good listener tries to understand what the other person is saying. In the end he may disagree sharply, but because he disagrees, he wants to know exactly what it is he is disagreeing with.

— Kenneth A. Wells

To meet at all, one must open ones eyes to another; and there is no true conversation no matter how many words are spoken, unless the eye, unveiled and listening, opens itself to the other.

— Jessamyn West

There is a difference between being listened to and being heard.

— Gillian Anderson

With the gift of listening comes the gift of healing.

— - Catherine de Hueck Doherty

Listening is one of the deepest, most profound signs of loving -- listening to yourself and listening to others. Your heart goes out and wraps around them and God's spirit of loving embraces you both.

— John Roger

Everybody can hear what your saying, but who is actually listening. -KaMilaOnikosi

— Kamila Onikosi

Mine is not the desire to be right, but rather to be heard.

— John Belmont