Quotes........Part 1

"Bored: A person who talks when you wish him to listen."

— Ambrose Bierce

"An actor’s a guy who if you ain’t talkin’ about him, ain’t listening."

— Marlon Brando

"It’s a rare person who wants to hear what he doesn't want to hear."

— Dick Cavett

"I’ll defend to the death your right to say that, but I never said I’d listen to it!"

— Tom Galloway

"The right to be heard does not automatically include the right to be taken seriously."

— Hubert Humphrey

"One advantage of talking to yourself is that you know at least somebody’s listening."

— Franklin P. Jones

"Just because I didn’t do what you told me, doesn’t mean I wasn’t listening to you!"

— Hank Ketcham

"One friend, one person who is truly understanding, who takes the trouble to listen to us as we consider a problem, can change our whole outlook on the world."

— Dr. E. H. Mayo

"There is no such thing as a worthless conversation, provided you know what to listen for. And questions are the breath of life for a conversation."

— James Nathan Miller

"You cannot truly listen to anyone and do anything else at the same time."

— M. Scott Peck

"It is the province of knowledge to speak. And it is the privilege of wisdom to listen."Oliver Wendell Holmes

"There's a big difference between showing interest and really taking interest."

— Michael P. Nichols
The Lost Art of Listening

"Listening looks easy, but it's not simple. Every head is a world."

— Cuban Proverb

"Man's inability to communicate is a result of his failure to listen effectively."

— Carl Rogers

"Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen."

— Winston Churchill

"If speaking is silver, then listening is gold."

— Turkish Proverb

"To listen fully means to pay close attention to what is being said beneath the words. You listen not only to the 'music,' but to the essence of the person speaking. You listen not only for what someone knows, but for what he or she is. Ears operate at the speed of sound, which is far slower than the speed of light the eyes take in. Generative listening is the art of developing deeper silences in yourself, so you can slow our mind’s hearing to your ears’ natural speed, and hear beneath the words to their meaning."

— Peter Senge

"Big egos have little ears."

— Robert Schuller

"It is the province of knowledge to speak And it is the privilege of wisdom to listen."

— Oliver Wendell Holmes

"The greatest compliment that was ever paid me was when one asked me what I thought, and attended to my answer."

— Henry David Thoreau

"Many attempts to communicate are nullified by saying too much."

— Robert Greenleaf

"To be listened to is, generally speaking, a nearly unique experience for most people. It is enormously stimulating. It is small wonder that people who have been demanding all their lives to be heard so often fall speechless when confronted with one who gravely agrees to lend an ear. Man clamors for the freedom to express himself and for knowing that he counts. But once offered these conditions, he becomes frightened."

— Robert C. Murphy