Quotes About Listening

To strengthen your interpersonal influence, don't win arguments. Instead, win hearts and minds.

Mark Twain once said, "Most conversations are monologues in the presence of witnesses.

Understanding a person's hunger and responding to it is one of the most potent tools you'll ever discover for getting through to anyone you meet in business or your personal life.

If someone can't or won't listen to you, get him to listen to himself.

Questioning works better than telling. That's why Will didn't tell Evan, "Don't let your friends get you into trouble." Instead, he asked questions that made Evan think, "Who's likely to get into trouble, and what should I do if it happens?" In other words, Will didn't talk down to Evan, or talk at him. Instead, the two talked side by side emotionally as well as physically.

If you want to have an interesting dinner conversation, be interested. If you want to have interesting things to write, be interested. If you want to meet interesting people, be interested in the people you meet—their lives, their history, their story. Where are they from? How did they get here? What have they learned? By practicing the art of being interested, the majority of people can become fascinating teachers; nearly everyone has an interesting story to tell.

Becoming defensive or counterattacking simply reinforces the idea that you think these people are wrong and unimportant (and stupid), which amplifies their mirror neuron gap and fuels their fire. When you make a counterintuitive move and encourage them to talk, you do the opposite: You mirror respect and interest, and they feel compelled to send the same message back.

5. Show the person that you are an ally rather than a threat by listening calmly and empathetically as he vents.

True listening, she says, isn't something that merely happens to you. It's something to do and to feel, to throw yourself into rationally, emotionally, and physically. Listening is something to engage with multiple senses. It isn't passive or reactive; it's creative. And to do it well, you must feel the experience—not just think about it.

When you use the Empathy Jolt, avoid the mistake of interjecting your own opinions during the process—even if they're positive ones ("I certainly agree about what you're saying about Simon's talents"). Your goal is to get two people to mirror each other, and they can't do that if you're standing between them. So facilitate, but don't butt in.

When I ask these people questions that let them open their minds and express their intelligence, I witness a peculiar phenomenon: These hurried professionals, whose most valuable resource is time, hunger to spend more of that time with me.

When you ask people questions, respect their answers. If they offer a good idea, act on it (and let them know that you did). Even if they're off base, acknowledge their remarks with a comment like, "That's worth thinking about" or "I hadn't looked at it that way." If the situation warrants, acknowledge a comment by saying "Smart idea" or "I'm glad you're on our team—I need people with creative ideas like that.

To listen well is as powerful a means of communication and influence as to talk well. —JOHN MARSHALL, CHIEF JUSTICE OF THE SUPREME COURT, 1801–1835

Of course, every few years you may be shocked when someone responds to your question "Do you really believe that?" with a very firm "yes." If so, be reachable yourself and listen to what the person has to say. A person who's brave enough to say "yes" to this question, and to stick by that answer, probably has some legitimate issues and will be happier and more productive if you iron those issues out.

All persuasion moves through the steps of this cycle. To take people from the beginning to the end of the Persuasion Cycle, you need to speak with them in a manner that moves them: From resisting to listening From listening to considering From considering to willing to do From willing to do to doing From doing to glad they did and continuing to do

believe you can learn almost everything you need to know—and more than other people would like you to know—simply by watching and listening, keeping your eyes peeled, your ears open. And your mouth closed.

Some people speak a lot, but have very little to say. Some people speak very little, but have very much to say.

Some people say that I talk too fast, but I think it's just that they listen too slowly.

Listening is crucial for any novelist. Stories & ideas abound. We too often talk about ourselves & block out the richness others may offer.

The only thing your life teaches you is how to live your life. And that's only if you're very lucky. And you listen very hard.

praying was where you talk to God. And meditation was where you listen.

Right there—listening and complimenting—you're ahead of eighty percent of every guy on the face of the earth.

We have ears everywhere, you know, Father. The Gestapo is like God. We hear all things.

people never learn this. They never realize that the Divine, the Almighty One, God, is listening to their hopes and dreams and trying to help. For good or for bad. Death or fields of clover. It is our choice." "Is it?