Quotes About Listening

It's no wonder I eventually started loathing them. Really, who can stand to listen to that level of certainty? To sit through the judgment?

True Prayer is not just Talking to God But rather Listening to Him.

For some of us, listening to him was like being pricked repeatedly with a pin—the sensation a discomfort radiating out from its point of entry. A poem of nerve ends, of images that stitched you up in a zigzag pattern and then scissored you open again.

Buddhism is a religion of the heart. Only this. One who practices to develop the heart is one who practices Buddhism [...] Use your heart to listen to the Teachings, not your ears.

Les mauvais médecins seraient donc ceux qu'on aime assez pour vouloir les intéresser à ses propres maux; et les bons médecins sont ceux au contraire qui vous demandent selon l'usage: "Comment allez-vous?" et qui n'écoutent pas la réponse.

I came to the conclusion that, even in life, unless I'm responding with my whole self—unless, in fact, I'm willing to be changed by you—I'm probably not really listening. But if I do listen—openly, naïvely, and innocently—there's a chance, possibly the only chance, that a true dialogue and real communication will take place between us.

I hope they'll pay attention not so much to the mechanical things, like a sudden change of pace in a talk or a sudden change in volume of their voice. I hope they'll pay attention, instead, to the fundamental source of that pacing and volume, which is the connection with the other person. That connection makes us respond like a leaf in the breeze to whatever is happening in the faces of those in front of us.

The person who's communicating something is responsible for how well the other person follows him.

When you're with someone, try labeling … is Jack upset? Is Jane excited? … It'll change how you hear what they're saying.

If I'm trying to explain something and you don't follow me, it's not simply your job to catch up. It's my job to slow down. This is at the heart of communicating: If I tell you something without making sure you got it, did I really communicate anything? Was I talking to you, or was I just making noises? In the mirror exercise, is the leader enabling the follower to follow, or is he just waving his arms?

Listening is being able to be changed by the other person.

Real conversation can't happen if listening is just my waiting for you to finish talking.

Real listening is a willingness to let the other person change you. When I'm willing to let them change me, something happens between us that's more interesting than monologues. Like so much of what I learned in the theater, this turned out how life works, too.

The difference between listening and pretending to listen, I discovered, is enormous. One is fluid, the other is rigid. One is alive, the other is stuffed. Eventually, I found a radical way of thinking about listening. Real listening is a willingness to let the other person change you. When I'm willing to let them change me, something happens between us that's more interesting than a pair of dueling monologues.

Communication doesn't take place because you tell somebody something. It takes place when you observe them closely and track their ability to follow you. Like

Well, if you listen, Piglet, you'll hear it." "How do you know I'm not listening?" Pooh couldn't answer that one, so he began to sing.

The point of music is discovered in every moment of playing and listening to it. It is the same, I feel, with the greater part of our lives, and if we are unduly absorbed in improving them we may forget altogether to live them.

those who have their mouths open all the time generally have their ears shut.

I hope there isn't,' [a final answer] said Colin. "I'm for uncertainty. As soon as you think you know, you're done for. You don't listen and you can't hear. If you're certain of anything, you shut the door on the possibility of revelation, of discovery. You can think. You can believe. But you can't, you mustn't, 'know'. There's the real Entropy.

The central statement of faith in Judaism is the Sh'ma, which reads: "Hear Israel, the Lord your God, the Lord is One." Only in silence is it possible to hear.

THE LESS SAID, the fewer mistakes; the greater the talk, the greater the headache. —YOSEF QIMHI (C. 1160–1235)

The trouble with the dead, Triumvir Ilia Volyova thought, was that they had no real idea when to shut up.

Surely you can hear him now?

I have a big family full of massive personalities so i just sit there most of the time great fun to listen to their stories.