Quotes About Listening

Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry" (James 1:19). That's especially important for those of us who are fix-it people. If I am a fix-it person and my kids have a problem, I consider it my job to intervene. That's what I do, and that's who I am—Mr. Fix-It. But unless our adult kids ask us for help, we must resist the impulse to fix their problems.

If you can't manage courtesy, try silence.

I can't believe I'm about to say this, I said. So think real careful about where this is coming from. Have you people ever considered *talking* when you've got a problem?

I leaned my head back on the couch and closed my eyes. I'm not sure what to do next. How are you as a sounding board? I can look interested and nod at appropriate moments, he said. Good enough, I said.

I listened. Listening isn't hard to do. No one has practice at it, nowadays, but you can train yourself to pay attention to your senses if you work at it long enough.

Speak only to those who listen. Anything else is a waste of breath. The answers to your questions were there, if you listened for them.

This is why you're all kernels and I'm a major general. 'Cause you got corn silk in your ears.

Coz, he said. You really must learn to shut your mouth from time to time. You'll taste less shoe letter.

This is why you're all kernels and I'm a major general. 'Cause you got corn silk in your ears.

I don't know what to say." His eyes wrinkled up even more heavily at the corners. "Hell, Hoss. Then don't say anything." He turned and called over his shoulder, "You get in less trouble that way!

Do you understand the rules as I have given them to you?" "Yep," I said. "Yes," said Arianna. "Have you anything else to say?" "Always," I said. "But it can wait.

The investigating business, though, is all about people. It's all about talking to them, asking questions, and listening to them lie.

It is often effective to say, "Well, it looks like things are not going well for you right now. When you get yourself to the point of putting your thoughts into words, come and talk to me. I'll be glad to listen." Then break eye contact and move on.

We might say, "My kids used to listen to me, but now they won't. Boy, have they ever changed." Wrong again. They haven't changed one iota. They're still listening to a voice outside their heads—it's just not ours anymore.

Because parents are biologically programmed to protect their children, their automatic tendency is to try to rescue them or give them some wisdom that will solve the problem. A more effective approach involves listening with empathy and very few words.

When you listen to your spouse, you are communicating non verbally that they are important to you.

God has given you two ears--that should tell you something about the importance of listening.

Listening is an act of love. When you listen to people, you are communicating non-verbally that they are important to you.

Evangelism is not a monologue, but a dialogue.

No matter what your situation, God is always ready to listen.

Of course he wasn't listening to what I said but to all of his imagined resonances of what I said.

What is meant to be heard is necessarily more direct in expression, and perhaps more boldly coloured, than what is meant for the reader.

Knowledge is speaking, Wisdom is listening

Knowledge speaks, but wisdom listens.