Quotes About Listening

A man who does't want opinions should keep his own mouth shut.

A life of making isn't a series of shows, or projects, or productions, or things: it is an everyday practice. It is a practice of questions more than answers, of waiting to find what you need more often than knowing what you need to do. Waiting, like listening and meandering, is best when it is an active and not a passive state.

This was how to help a family who has just lost their child. Wash the clothes, make soup. Don't ask them what they need, bring them what they need. Keep them warm. Listen to them rant, and cry, and tell their story over and over.

Blessed are they who hold lively conversations with the helplessly mute, for they shall be called dentists.

Know when to tune out, if you listen to too much advice you may wind up making other peoples mistakes.

A Beethoven string quartet. I could hardly be better. 'We're not going to sit here and listen to music are we'? said martin in amazement. 'Martin, there are two things you should remember,'said the Fiddler. One, that music is a great power against evil and darkness; two, that good loud music will cover anything we have to say should the eavesdropper be merely mortal.

My father had always been an accomplished storyteller; it was his substitute for conversation, which required too much attention to the other person.

Loving music had pushed all of us off the track- away from the normal pursuit of career, mate, and family, on an endless quest for that vibrating high, the plunge beyond time that comes only when you submerge yourself beneath the waterline of amplified sound. We were addicts, in a way, but also adept, enlightened by a noise most people considered no more than a pleasant distraction. What was left for us but to practice our art of listening?

On the surface, at least, it seemed that I had more problems than Ted did. He was one of those rare people who listen with full attention, who evince a genuine caring by their very stance. You could tell things to Ted that you might never tell anyone else.

Consider the following rabbinic parable: There are four types among those who sit in the presence of the rabbis: the sponge, the funnel, the strainer, and the sieve. "The sponge," which soaks up everything. "The funnel," which takes in at this end and lets out at the other. "The strainer," which lets out the wine and retains the dregs. "The sieve," which removes the chaff and retains the fine flour. 19

He didn't wait for her to finish. He never did. A habit unacceptable in a husband.

People who are sick, or who have been sick, or have come close to death have a lot to say - and they want you to hear it.

Pour le moment, elle entendait encore le son de sa voix, mais... Jusqu'à quand?

One needs occasionally to stand aside from the hum and rush of human interests and passions to hear the voices of God.

Everything was so quiet, as if the silence was listening.

The ultimate act of bravery does not take place on a battlefield. It takes place in your heart, when you have the courage to honor your character, your intellect, your inclinations and yes, your soul by listening to its clean, clear voice of direction instead of following the muddied messages of a timid world.

Our table was round," recalled one of the artists who, from a farming family in N?gata, returned every planting season to help his now elderly parents plant rice. "A square table has edges, but edges divide people. As a family, we weren't cut off from one another. We ate together and we listened to one another." Eating together, listening to one another, sharing food. The memory evoked a familiar, now nostalgic, sense of touch in them all.

Listening is a basic ingredient of attention, and it can be learned and practiced. Listening is fueled by interest and curiosity. It is a discipline and an action in the world, and the results are nearly magical. Hearing can restore. To be heard, really heard by another person, is to be healed.

You may have as many words as you please -- only I can't stay to hear them.

And tonight—Geryon? You okay? Yes fine, I'm listening. Tonight—? Why do you have your jacket over your head? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Can't hear you Geryon. The jacket shifted. Geryon peered out. I said sometimes I need a little privacy.

He / thought of women. / What is it like to be a woman / listening in the dark? Black mantle of silence / stretches between them like geothermal pressure. / Ascent of the rapist up the stairs seems as slow as / lava. She listens / to the blank space where / his consciousness is, moving towards her. Lava can / move as slow as / nine hours per inch. [...] She wonders if / he is listening too. The cruel thing is, she falls asleep / listening.

Reality is a sound, you have to tune in to it not just keep yelling.

How often do we offer advice when what is really required is a compassionate ear?

Because paper has more patience than people.