Quotes About Listening

This is not merely the literary technique of overhearing

Denton, L., & Silver, M. (2012). Listening and understanding: Language and learning disabilities. In L. Barclay (Ed.), Learning to listen/listening to learn (pp. 372–453). New York, NY: American Foundation for the Blind.

The greatest gift you can give another is the purity of your attention.

but a good writer knows when to shut up and listen.

Trees have long been trying to reach us. But they speak on frequencies too low for people to hear.

This is a story of loops, at least one. I stepped off the loop. I spent time listening, testing realms. I snapped a twig in my head and struck out. You know what it's like to be alone: gimlets and vermicide. You know what it's like to be alive, so forgiveness.

Let me tell you a story about war. A man says to another man, Can I tell you something? The other man says, No. A man says to another man, There is something I have to tell you. No, says the other man. No, you don't.

It is too heavy, says the canvas. You lack restraint. I was sleeping in whiteness, drifts of snow, and you woke me and told me your dream, my blank face upturned, listening. You came to me while we were sleeping, we were both sleeping, and you asked me to hold this for you. I am holding this for you.

I have often lamented that we cannot close our ears with as much ease as we can our eyes.

When you fall into a man's conversation, the first thing you should consider is, whether he has a greater inclination to hear you, or that you should hear him.

I have often lamented that we cannot close our ears with as much ease as which we close our eyes.

I have often lamented that we cannot shut our ears with as much ease as we can our eyes.

May your home be so holy with laughter that wounded birds lean against your door to listen and heal. – Richard Van Camp's Twitter and Facebook Posts, July 22, 2017 (Ma traduction en français : Que votre maison soit si bénie par le rire que les oiseaux blessés s'appuient contre votre porte pour écouter et guérir.)

He is prudent who can listen in silence, who can take advice so as to gain a more precise, clear, and complete knowledge of the facts.

When you're talking, Steve," Jock MacKenzie had told him once, "and I don't care who it's to or what it's about, the important thing is knowing when to stop. Never say anything that doesn't improve on silence.

Anybody's marriage might benefit from an occasional embargo on talk.

Whoa, Dimitri," I said, tossing my bag on the floor. "I realize this is actually a current hit in Eastern Europe right now, but do you think we could maybe listen to something that wasn't recorded before I was born?" Only his eyes flicked toward me; the rest of his posture remained the same. "What does it matter to you? I'm the one who's going to be listening to it. You'll be outside running.

The ghost of a smile flickered across his lips. 'You're always the voice of reason. Just try listening to yourself once in a while.

to hear what you and my mother were doing last night. I think

Use your ears more than your mouth.

Listening says, "I value your opinion, I care about our relationship, and you matter to me." The cliché is true: People don't care what we know until they know we care.

Steel not only had an elephant's memory, he had the ears to go along with it:

I don't want to talk to anyone, lest I squander your words' echo, which ripples like a shine over mine and lends their sound a richness.

Lauschende Wolke über dem Wald. Wie wir sie lieben lernten, seit wir wissen, wie wunderbald sie als weckender Regen prallt an die träumenden Ernten.