Quotes About Listening

If I were running a company, I would always want to listen to the thoughts of its most talented youngsters, because they are the people most in touch with the realities of today and the prospects for tomorrow.

When I was lost in my own thoughts, Cathy would always say, 'You're not listening to me.' She was right.

Watching others, listening to their advice and reading about people are three of the best things I ever did.

advice often comes when you least expect it, and listening, which costs nothing, is one of the most valuable things you can do.

Many people cannot stop long enough to listen - especially when they become successful and all the people around them are being obsequious and pretending to hang on their every word.

There is nothing wrong with requiring time to consider a question or an argument and you can gain it without appearing to be a dithering idiot. I might say, 'I've never considered that angle – can I give it some thought?' By praising the other person's ability to make me think, I increased his willingness to wait for an answer.

I often of someone by listening to the questions they pose. It shows how they think; offers a sense of their level of experience and degree of maturity.

I realise that we're shaped by lots of other forces beyond just watching, listening and reading. We're all accidental victims of our parents' DNA; we are shaped by the luck of the draw, the circumstances in which we grew up and the education we received. But we all have two sets of very powerful tools that we completely control: our eyes and our ears. Watching others, listening to their advice and reading about people are three of the best things I ever did.

I learned that it is possible to make conversation with anyone, if you figure out what they wish to discuss.

I wonder how many times in my life I would have been able to prevent something, change something, do something different, if only I'd listened to someone.

Her hope—and mine—was that a book about the children would make us all hear, that it would make us all stop and listen.

When I am gripped with despair, when I think I might stop, I speak to my dead. Tell them a story. What am I doing with this life? They hold me accountable. I let them make me bolder or more modest or louder or more moving, but I ask them to listen, and then write.

Sometimes, I think I know what my grandparents were listening for. Sound waves don't ever go away. Not one sound goes away. The wave simply expands, infinitely. The sound remains. Imagine a cosine arc the size of Jupiter, and that might be the size of the wave of the last thing Peter ever said. I'd need an ear the size of another solar system to hear him again.

listening can be more powerful than talking.

Our main question shouldn't be "How do I get my child to do what I say?" but "What does my child need - and how can I meet those needs?" In my experience, you can predict much of what happens in families just from knowing which of those questions is more important to the parents. You don't even have to know the answers they've found. The questions are what count.

Earmarks have become a symbol of a Congress that has broken faith with the people. This earmark ban shows the American people we are listening and we are dead serious about ending business as usual in Washington.

Real men don't listen. I think you can waste a lot of valuable time listening to what people are saying to you and, let's face it, it's rarely interesting or important.

If you don't know what is being said, the rest of the actor's work is wasted.

I don't really talk that much. I just watch and observe.

Typically, when you read, you have more time to think. Reading gives you a unique pause button for comprehension and insight. By and large, with oral language - when you watch a film or listen to a tape - you don't press pause.

I watch a lot of baseball on the radio.

I would never be one to critique the announcers when I watched games. I try to watch the play and listen to the broadcasters and what they are pointing out. I was never one to say this one was good or bad.

I found the hedge-fund guys I met all to be very, very concentrated listeners - watchful and articulate and quick to defend, if needed. They all seemed to have this contained sitting posture. The legs, if they weren't crossed at right angles, tended to be close over the knee, their hands put together.

At heart I've always been a music fan. That part of me has never changed since I was a little kid, sitting in a room watching a record go round, looking at the colour of the labels.