Quotes About Listening

I'm always asking God for direction, but I'll miss it if I constantly ignore His instruction. (11)

We are to be people of truth with grace-filled words. People who choose healing and helpful words. Because whether we realize it or not, believers and unbelievers alike are listening intently to the words we speak. They're reading the words we type. And our words testify to the kind of relationship we have with Jesus and the kind of effect He has on our hearts.

The true spirit of conversation consists in building on another man's observation, not overturning it.

In the silence, whether we listen to the creation around us, the words of revelation, or the deepest stirrings of our own hearts, we begin to perceive another voice, one that is too often lost in the static of life. It is no use saying: "Speak, Lord, your servant wants to hear," if We never risk the silence to listen. 48

We cannot let another person into our hearts or minds unless we empty ourselves. We can truly listen to him or truly hear her only out of emptiness.

You cannot truly listen to anyone and do anything else at the same time.

In your way that I have come to know and appreciate, you did not say anything. You didn't push me to say more. You waited. Your patience is a gift. You trusted our silence.

You'll never hear interesting stories if you don't ask questions. And there are interesting stories everywhere. Even the most boring person has one interesting story.

Women have to be active listeners and interrupters - but when you interrupt, you have to know what you are talking about.

History would be far different if we did not tend to hear God most clearly when we think He is telling us exactly what it is we want to hear

At many levels, contempt has become a defining characteristic of American politics. It makes us unwilling to listen to what others say—unwilling, in some cases, even to allow them to speak. This stops the learning process cold and creates a ready-made audience for demagogues who know how to bring diverse groups of the aggrieved together in righteous opposition to everyone else.

Silence may be golden," I said, "but it won't win many arguments. If you have something to say, don't keep your ideas locked up; unclench your jaws and set those thoughts free. And don't be afraid to interrupt, because that may be the only way you are going to be heard.

Rather than think critically, we seek out people who share our opinions and who encourage us to ridicule the ideas of those whose convictions and perspectives clash with our own. At many levels, contempt has become a defining characteristic of American politics. It makes us unwilling to listen to what others say—unwilling, in some cases, even to allow them to speak.

If some people say what is in their hearts and other people say what glides easily off the tongue, how can we talk to one another?

you out here," Ridge said.

She held up her hands. "Stop, please. Allow me to hear one shocking sentence at a time.

She barely heard. Barely answered. Finally she nodded. Fingertips

And I wanted to be able to listen, to digest the bloody images, to paint them flat and unremarkable onto the vase of posterity. To release him from it and make him Achilles again.

I learned to sleep during the day so that I would not be tired when he returned; he always needed to talk then, to tell me down to the last detail about the faces and the wounds and the movements of men. And I wanted to be able to listen, to digest the bloody images, to paint them flat and unremarkable onto the vase of posterity. To release him from it and make him Achilles again.

There are times in life, little lady, he said, when we can only listen to the ticking of the clock of fate and wait for what is destined to happen. This is one of those times.

At last there came the reward for patience, her tremendous inhalation broken into six separate fragments, her whole body listening to itself then, finding, being certain, and then taking with hunger. Later she lay curled languid against my chest, her heart and breathing slow. "Wasn't too soon," she said, a blurred drone. "No, it wasn't." "Sweet," she said. "Ver' sweet." And she nestled down into the sleep of total exhaustion.

I don't often do this much talking for so little reason, McGee. You have a nice touch. You're an eager listener. You smile in the right places. It puts people on. And, of course, you haven't leveled with me.

I have busted my gut to learn how to make people open up. Meyer was born with it. A loving empathy shines out of those little bright-blue eyes. Strangers tell him things they wouldn't tell their husband or their priest.

I switched the FM-UHF marine radio to the commercial frequencies and tried to find something that didn't sound like somebody trying to break up a dogfight in a sorority house by banging drums and cymbals. Not that I want to say it isn't music.