Quotable - On Listening

It takes a great man to be a good listener.  -Calvin Coolidge

No one cares to speak to an unwilling listener. St. Jerome

I learned to write by listening to people talk. I still feel that the best of my writing comes from having heard rather than having read. G.  Jones (1949 - ____) US short story writer, novelist

The first duty of love is to listen. - Paul Tillich

I think the one lesson I have learned is that there is no
substitute for paying attention. - Diane Sawyer

I make progress by having people around me who are smarter than I am and listening to them. And I assume that everyone is smarter about something than I am. Henry J. Kaiser (1882 - 1967) US industrialist

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.
Alice Duer Miller (1874 - 1942) US poet, author

From listening comes wisdom, and from speaking repentance.
Italian Proverb

Listening, not imitation, may be the sincerest form of flattery. . . . If you want to influence someone, listen to what he says. . . . When he finishes talking, ask him about any points that you do not understand.  Joyce Brothers (1928 - ____) US psychologist, author

Most of the successful people I've known are the ones who do more listening than talking. Bernard Baruch (1870 - 1965) US businessman, statesman

Music is the effort we make to explain to ourselves how our brains work. We listen to Bach transfixed because this is listening to a human mind.
Lewis Thomas (1913 - 1993) English biologist, essayist
The Medusa and the Snail, "On Thinking about Thinking" (1979).

Many people may listen, but few people actually hear. Harvey Mackay

It seems rather incongruous that in a society of super
sophisticated communication, we often suffer from a
shortage of listeners. - Erma Bombeck

Most of us tend to suffer from 'agenda anxiety', the
feeling that what we want to say to others is more
important than what we think they might want to say to us.
  Nido Qubein

The opposite of talking isn't listening. The opposite of talking is waiting.
Fran Lebowitz (1950 - ____) US journalist

To get 'em listening, get 'em laughing.
Allen Klein (1950 - ____) US journalist

Seek first to understand, then to be understood. Stephen Covey

I like to listen. I have learned a great deal from listening carefully. Most people never listen .  Ernest Hemingway (1898 - 1961)

To meet at all, one must open ones eyes to another; and there is no true conversation no matter how many words are spoken, unless the eye, unveiled and listening, opens itself to the other. Jessamyn West (1902 - 1984) US author

What you always do before you make a decision is consult. The best public policy is made when you are listening to people who are going to be impacted. Then, once a policy is determined, you call on them to help you sell it. Elizabeth Dole

While the right to talk may be the beginning of freedom, the necessity of listening is what makes that right important. Walter Lippmann (1889 - 1974) US journalist, editor, author

Of all human activities, man's listening to God is the supreme act of his reasoning and will.  Pope Paul VI (1897 - 1978) Italian religious leader

Listening to good advice is the way to wealth. Iranian Proverb

A man is already halfway in love with any woman who listens to him.
-Brendan Francis

A good listener tries to understand thoroughly what the other person is saying. In the end he may disagree sharply, but before he disagrees, he wants to know exactly what it is he is disagreeing with. -Kenneth A. Wells, Guide to Good Leadership

So when you are listening to somebody, completely, attentively, then you are listening not only to the words, but also to the feeling of what is being conveyed, to the whole of it, not part of it.  Jiddu Krishnamurti  

 

 

People talking without speaking,/ People listening without hearing,/ People writing songs that voices never shared. Paul Simon (1941 - ____) US singer, songwriter
From the song, "Sound of Silence."