Quotes About Listening

Very few people have ever experienced the feeling of being completely understood. When they experience it, it can become one of the richest feelings they have ever had.

The most important thing in communication is hearing what isn't said.

Silence is also a form of speaking.

Too little confidence, and you're unable to act; too much confidence, and you're unable to hear.

He who closes his ears to the views of others shows little confidence in the integrity of his own views.

Humility is attentive patience.

And no one will listen to us until we listen to ourselves.

Most of what I listen to now is mainstream jazz from 1935 right up to and including early bebop and cool jazz.

Courage does not panic; it prays. Courage does not bemoan; it believes. Courage does not languish; it listens

Curiosity takes courage. The most important promises are the ones you make to yourself. Pay Attention. Appreciate. Listen. Imagine.

What people get admired and appreciated for in community are their soft skills: their sense of humor and timing, their ability to listen, their courage and honesty, their capacity for empathy.

My dad's not a big talker.

I would ask my dad what he did, and he'd say, 'I listen to people's problems.' In some way what he did for a living is in my genes.

The most challenging part of being a dad is self-restraint. So often your instinct is to teach and tell. I am constantly reminding myself to listen to them.

...some nights I'd sneak out and listen to the radio in my Dad's old Chevy - children need solitude - they don't teach that in school...

Talking about your feeling with someone who is willing to listen can be enormously consoling, especially if that person has experienced a death similar to the one you are grieving.

Honest listening is one of the best medicines we can offer the dying and the bereaved.

I was all ear, And took in strains that might create a soul Under the ribs of death.

To a dying person you can repeat yourself forever. They don't care. Just so they can still hear you talking.

Qué profundo es el oído! Piensa en lo que significa comprender algo que solamente has oído. ¡El carácter casi divino del oído! ¿No es por lo menos un fenómeno semidivino verte ante las inequidades más profundas de una existencia humana por el sencillo procedimiento de permanecer sentado en la oscuridad, escuchando lo que te dicen?

The important thing was to forget about Iris's hair and let her speak, let her find her fluency and, from the soft streaming of her own words, create for him his apologia.

I have mentioned that no one offers the name of a philosopher when I ask the question, "Who helped you most?" Most often they answer by describing a quiet, unassuming person. Someone who was there whenever needed, who listened more than talked, who didn't keep glancing down at a watch, who hugged and touched, and cried. In short, someone who was available, and came on the sufferer's terms and not their own.

The Quakers have a saying: "An enemy is one whose story we have not heard." To communicate to post-Christians, I must first listen to their stories for clues to how they view the world and how they view people like me. Those conversations are what led to the title of this book. Although God's grace is as amazing as ever, in my divided country it seems in vanishing supply.

no one offers the name of a philosopher when I ask the question, "Who helped you most?" Most often they answer by describing a quiet, unassuming person. Someone who was there whenever needed, who listened more than talked, who didn't keep glancing down at a watch, who hugged and touched, and cried.