Quotes About Listening

I could ever tell him about myself that he would judge or criticize. My own glints of darkness did not frighten him; he had such darkness of his own that nobody else's shadows scared him. Most of all, though, he listened.

Then he asked me to tell him some stories about India, about America, about Italy, about my family. That's when I realized that I am not Ketut Liyer's English teacher, nor am I exactly his theological student, but I am the merest and simplest of pleasures for this old medicine man- I am his company. I'm somebody he can talk to because he enjoys hearing about the world and he hasn't had much of a chance to see it.

Some people like to argue about God." "Not necessary," he said. "I have good idea, for if you meet some person from different religion and he want to make argument about God. My idea is, you listen to everything this man say about God. Never argue about God with him. Best thing to say is, 'I agree with you.' Then you go home, pray what you want. This is my idea for people to have peace about religion.

Third, nobody ever really listens to anybody else's complaints, anyhow, because we're all too focused on our own holy struggle, so basically you're just talking to a brick wall.

But the thing about divorcing someone is that you kind of stop listening to all the mean stuff they say about you after a while.)

I learned that not only does everybody have a story that would stop your heart, but everybody wants to tell you about it.

just because people can hear each other across the divide does not mean they can necessarily understand each other

History has a pulse, they say- but mostly I have never been able to hear it, not even when its drumming in my goddamn ears.

He and I had been talking about jazz (which is to say that he had been talking about jazz, and I had been listening to him talk about jazz, because that is how you talk to a man about jazz)

She was paying me the compliment of her undivided attention, ...

Manchmal gibt es kaum etwas Schwierigeres, als zu jemandem zu sprechen, der ueber die Macht des Schweigens verfuegt.

What a mercy it was that Alice was only his sister, and not his wife; for so at least, though he had to listen to her during the day, he hadn't got to during the night.

September 15th. After that I opened my heart to him, and listened reverently to all he had to say, and treasured up his kind and encouraging advice, and wished he could stay here a whole year and help me through the seasons. But he went, as people one likes always do go, and he was the only guest I have had whose departure made me sorry.

If you already know what your response will be before you've heard what the other person has said, you are not listening.

Presuming that a nonspeaking child has nothing to say is like presuming that an adult without a car has nowhere to go.

It demands that we give voice to their thoughts and feelings, even when their voices are nonverbal.

That's a beautiful speech, but nobody's listening. Let's go.

Tom McLeod turned to Macklin. "Do you hear that?" he asked.

Qu'importe de quoi parlent les lévres, lorsqu´e on écoute les coeurs se répondre,

Ordinary sounds remain ordinary only so long as one is not listening to them; under the influence of intense listening they become unusual, portentous, and therefore extraordinary.

He drew into his shell a little, giving the merest sketch of what had happened. But he listened closely while these two practical old friends supplied hm with infomration in the gossiping way that human nature loves.

Whole worlds open up when we start a conversation.

Maybe it's easier to talk to someone who won't ever actually hear what you say.

People love to talk but hate to listen. Listening is not merely not talking, though even that is beyond most of our powers; it means taking a vigorous human interest in what is being told us. You can listen like a blank wall or like a splendid auditorium where every sound comes back fuller and richer.