Quotes About Listening

Put your ear down close to your soul and listen hard.

I find I don't learn a lot while I'm talking

Listening is a fundamental way to invite a child into the community. It is commonly said that listening is the cheapest concession you can make. In schools, adults listen, but mostly for the answers to our academic questions. We listen to determine what is right and wrong. We listen for opportunities to lecture.

Try asking instead of telling, understanding instead of responding, listening instead of talking.

Most salespeople think that unless they are calling a customer to sell something, it's a wasted call. Nothing could be farther from the truth.

Questions are to sales as breath is to life. If you fail to ask them, you will die. If you ask them incorrectly, your death won't be immediate, but it's inevitable.

I mean, have you ever imagined the ocean is alive, and needs to tell us something important, and the only way it can talk is by making waves crash, and we just lounge there, drenched in cocoa butter, on towels with crappy novels and volleyballs, sipping spritzers, as the ocean uses all its strength to repeat the same warning over and over?

I mean, have you ever imagined the ocean is alive, and needs to tell us something important, and the only way it can talk is by making waves crash, and we just lounge there, drenched in cocoa butter, on towels with crappy novels and volleyballs, sipping spritzers, as the ocean uses all its strength to repeat the same warning over and over? (from the poem "The Berlin Mall")

When people ask me how I write, I always answer, "Out loud." It's the single most important piece of advice I give young writers. I insist, unequivocally, the greatest works that have every been written were – every one of them – written out loud. Learn that trick, teach yourself to listen to what you're writing, and your writing will improve immeasurably.

Consumers will tell you important stuff that you need to know if you shut up and listen.

Remind me again why we listened to a talking snowman? We're in deep snow, the wind is howling, we have no shelter, and I'm sledding up a mountain based on a hunch.

He was listening with rapt attention. "I'm boring you, aren't I? I don't usually tell anyone my life's story." She'd never told anyone particular anecdote, actually.

Love means saying to someone else's story or pain or anger or experience: "I'm listening. Tell me more." Love refuses to deny or dismantle another's perspective simply because I don't share it.

Anytime the rich and poor combine, we should listen to whoever has the least power.

Tell me more about that. Tell me how your thoughts progressed in this. I appreciate your experience with this. I'm listening. I hear what you are saying. I would love to learn from you. I care about how you feel and your perspective here. I understand that. I identify with that. What do you think of __________? I hadn't thought of it in that way. Thank you for that angle. Let me think about that a bit before I respond. Thanks for your transparency.

We must waive the lecture and embrace listening. What are they actually saying? What is confusing to them? What do they think? Where is the rub? Let's hear them, then engage them... Kids want to be mentored, not ruled.

Some useful statements to pocket to create safe spaces for discussion: Tell me more about that. Tell me how your thoughts progressed in this. I appreciate your experience with this. I'm listening. I hear what you are saying. I would love to learn from you. I care about how you feel and your perspective here. I understand that. I identify with

You can hear something over and over and over and over and over and still not really hear it. It does not click. No lo comprendo. Until you're ready to hear it. And then it is defeaning.

Sometimes it's easier for other people to see what we can't see ourselves, so if they can help us connect with our truths and live happier, more authentic lives, then it's worth taking the time to listen.

We spend the vast majority of our time moving at full speed ahead, both physically and mentally, and we literally bulldoze over the very answers we're seeking because they can't be heard above the din.

A wise man once said nothing.

Who knew that listening to a guy sleep could be so much deeper than sleeping with a guy.

I listened as the words became sentences and the sentences became pages and the pages became feelings and voices and places and people.

Quién iba a decirme que escuchar a un chico dormido podía ser mucho más profundo que dormir con un chico.