Listening Quotes

Listen to the mustn'ts, child. Listen to the don'ts. Listen to the shouldn'ts, the impossibles, the won'ts. Listen to the never haves, then listen close to me... Anything can happen, child. Anything can be.

When people talk, listen completely. Most people never listen.

Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around.

Knowledge speaks, but wisdom listens

Listen to many, speak to a few.

Concentrate on what you want to say to yourself and your friends. Follow your inner moonlight; don't hide the madness. You say what you want to say when you don't care who's listening.

I like to listen. I have learned a great deal from listening carefully. Most people never listen.

Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under trees on a summer's day, listening to the murmur of the water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is by no means a waste of time.

To talk well and eloquently is a very great art, but that an equally great one is to know the right moment to stop.

There is only one success - to be able to spend your life in your own way.

Wisdom is the reward you get for a lifetime of listening when you'd have preferred to talk.

The first duty of love is to listen.

Do not follow the ideas of others, but learn to listen to the voice within yourself. Your body and mind will become clear and you will realize the unity of all things.

....there is a difference between hearing and listening. You can't always help what you hear. But you can control what holds your interest, what you choose to dwell on.

Change happens by listening and then starting a dialogue with the people who are doing something you don't believe is right.

We have two ears and one tongue so that we would listen more and talk less.

The best time for you to hold your tongue is the time you feel you must say something or bust.

One of the most sincere forms of respect is actually listening to what another has to say.

Music is more than just listening to it. People use the music for them protection at times.

We do not believe in ourselves until someone reveals that deep inside us something is valuable, worth listening to, worthy of our trust, sacred to our touch. Once we believe in ourselves we can risk curiosity, wonder, spontaneous delight or any experience that reveals the human spirit.

The opposite of talking isn't listening. The opposite of talking is waiting.

Those who still think listening isn't an art should see if they can do it half as well.

A good listener is not only popular everywhere, but after a while, he knows something.

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

Good listeners, like precious gems, are to be treasured.

But I'm not ready to stop listening to the screwed-up inner voice that's been ordering me around for a lifetime. My head thinks it can kill me... and go on living without me.

We must be silent before we can listen. We must listen before we can learn. We must learn before we can prepare. We must prepare before we can serve. We must serve before we can lead.

I will come back as a little breeze. You will feel me on your face, and you will know that I am still listening. So you can still talk to me.

To listen well is as powerful a means of communication and influence as to talk well.

If you're listening to a rock star in order to get your information on who to vote for, you're a bigger moron than they are."

Everything has been said before, but since nobody listens we have to keep going back and beginning all over again.

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

A pessimist is a person who has had to listen to too many optimists.

I'll make music, whether or not anyone is listening, for the rest of my life. It's a natural form of expression for me, the same way I draw and write and sing.

To listen is an effort, and just to hear is no merit. A duck hears also.

I'm glad I understand that while language is a gift, listening is a responsibility. (U.S. poet and writer, 1943- )

The less you talk, the more you're listened to.

We all have a world of things inside ourselves and each one of us has his own private world. How can we understand each other if the words I use have the sense and the value that I expect them to have, but whoever is listening to me inevitably thinks that those same words have a different sense and value, because of the private world he has inside himself, too.

No, it's not a very good story - its author was too busy listening to other voices to listen as closely as he should have to the one coming from inside.

Listening to the Fifth Symphony of Ralph Vaughan Williams is like staring at a cow for 45 minutes.

What is opportunity, and when does it knock? It never knocks. You can wait a whole lifetime, listening, hoping, and you will hear no knocking. None at all. You are opportunity, and you must knock on the door leading to your destiny. You prepare yourself to recognize opportunity, to pursue and seize opportunity as you develop the strength of your personality, and build a self-image with which you are able to live - with your self-respect alive and growing.

I grew up listening to albums by Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin and Jimi Hendrix, and they all worked on that multi-layered level.

You don't need any brains to listen to music.

You can't fake listening. It shows.

A good listener is not someone with nothing to say. A good listener is a good talker with a sore throat.

He that speaks much, is much mistaken.

I saw old autumn in the misty morn Stand shadowless like silence, listening To silence.

If there is anyone to whom I owe money, I'm prepared to forget it if they are.

When anyone tells me I can't do anything... I'm just not listening any more.

Consider the source...Don't be a fool by listening to a fool.

No siren did ever so charm the ear of the listener as the listening ear has charmed the soul of the siren.

if you want someone to stop listening to you go ahead and yell. If you want them to listen to every word, whisper. -Mimi

I never for a day gave up listening to the songs of our birds, or watching their peculiar habits, or delineating them in the best way I could.

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 policy is determined, you call on them to help you sell it.

An actor's a guy who, if you ain't talking about him, ain't listening.

It is better to make a piece of music than to perform one, better to perform one than to listen to one, better to listen to one than to misuse it as a means of distraction, entertainment, or acquisition of 'culture.'

My mom has a good way of engaging me in a conversation about the choices I make, listening, being objective and open-minded, and respecting those choices so long as they don't put me in danger.

Listening is a magnetic and strange thing, a creative force. When we really listen to people there is an alternating current, and this recharges us so that we never get tired of each other. We are constantly being re-created.

When one has the feeling of dislike for evil, when one feels tranquil, one finds pleasure in listening to good teachings; when one has these feelings and appreciates them, one is free of fear.

Women like silent men. They think they're listening.

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

Listening to both sides does not necessarily bring about a correct judgment.

Sometimes he caught himself listening to the sound of his own voice. He thought that in her eyes he would ascent to an angelical stature; and, as he attached the fervent nature of his companion more and more closely to him, he heard the strange impersonal voice which he recognised as his own, insisting on the soul's incurable lonliness. We cannot give ourselves, it said: we are our own.

If you want to be listened to, you should put in time listening.

One who cares is one who listens.

I make money using my brains and lose money listening to my heart. But in the long run my books balance pretty well.

If you’re really listening, if you’re awake to the poignant beauty of the world, your heart breaks regularly.

I've been listening to a lot of Hollies stuff lately, and it's beginning to sound pretty good to me.

When you stop learning, stop listening, stop looking and asking questions, always new questions, then it is time to die.

We must stop talking about the American dream and start listening to the dreams of Americans.

Hear not ill of a friend, nor speak any of an enemy.

The human brain can soften as a result of incessant listening to music with an intent to commit prose.

Be a good listener. Your ears will never get you in trouble." -Frank Tyger

When I speak of the gifted listener, I am thinking of the nonmusician primarily, of the listener who intends to retain his amateur status. It is the thought of just such a listener that excites the composer in me.

No one really listens to anyone else, and if you try it for a while you'll see why.

I’d like to be remembered as someone who used their ability as a novelist or as a dramatist to say the things he felt needed to be said about the society while being as entertaining as possible. Because if you don’t entertain, nobody’s listening.

If you think you might have secret information listening to me, you're lost.

What women want: To be loved, to be listened to, to be desired, to be respected, to be needed, to be trusted, and sometimes, just to be held. What men want: Tickets to the World Series.

We learn best to listen to our own voices if we are listening at the same time to other women - whose stories, for all our differences, turn out, if we listen well, to be our stories also.

A good listener tries to understand what the other person is saying. In the end he may disagree sharply, but because he disagrees, he wants to know exactly what it is he is disagreeing with.

Did you ever see that painting the Mona Lisa. It always reminds me of a reporter listening to a politician.

If A equals success, then the formula is A equals X plus Y and Z, with X being work, Y play, and Z keeping your mouth shut.

Anger is a signal, and one worth listening to.

The best way to persuade people is with your ears - by listening to them.

Make sure you have finished speaking before your audience has finished listening.

If you would not have affliction visit you twice, listen at once to what it teaches.

Ninety-two percent of the stuff told you in confidence you couldn't get anyone else to listen to.

You have to do a lot of listening, you don't just learn out of yourself.

I was listening to music long before rock 'n roll.

The hearing ear is always found close to the speaking tongue.

No command of art, No toil, can help you hear; Earth's minstrelsy falls clear But on the listening heart.

There are people who, instead of listening to what is being said to them, are already listening to what they are going to say themselves.

Children have never been very good at listening to their elders, but they have never failed to imitate them.

I get so tired listening to one million dollars here, one million dollars there, it's so petty.

The difference between listening to a radio sermon and going to church...is almost like the difference between calling your girl on the phone and spending an evening with her.

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.

Difficult as it is really to listen to someone in affliction, it is just as difficult for him to know that compassion is listening to him.

The most called-upon prerequisite of a friend is an accessible ear.

So long as it doesn't get to the point where you don't remember whose opera you're listening to, I'm willing to experiment.

Just the act of listening means more than you can imagine to most employees.