LISTENING QUOTES

quotations about listening

Listening quote

Listening is a commitment and a compliment. It's a commitment to understanding how other people feel, how they see their world. It means putting aside your own prejudices and beliefs, your anxieties and self-interest, so that you can step behind the other person's eyes. You try to look at things from the other person's perspective. Listening is a compliment because it says to the other person, "I care about what's happening to you; your life and your experience are important." People usually respond to the compliment of listening by liking and appreciating you.

MATTHEW MCKAY, MARTHA DAVIS & PATRICK FANNING

Messages: The Communication Skills Book


Good listening is a process of showing respect and validating a person's worth.

MICHELLE LUCAS

attributed, The Zen of Listening: Mindful Communication in the Age of Distraction


Good listeners are popular. Everyone wants to be heard.

DIANE J. ACKERMAN

Shut the Duck Up!!!


It takes a disciplined person to listen to convictions which are different from their own.

DOROTHY FULDHEIM

A Thousand Friends

Tags: Dorothy Fuldheim


The activity of interpreting might be understood as listening for the song beneath the words.

RONALD A. HEIFETZ

The Practice of Adaptive Leadership


The world has always needed good listeners, for only good listeners are truthful tellers.

ERNEST KURTZ & KATHERINE KETCHAM

The Spirituality of Imperfection


You're short on ears and long on mouth.

JOHN WAYNE

Big Jake


Good listeners are good catchers because they give their speakers a target and then move that target to capture the information that is being sent. When good listeners aren't understanding their speakers, they will send signals to the speaker about what they expect next, or how the speaker can change the speed of delivery to suit the listener.

NAMRATA PALTA

The Art of Effective Communication


The art of conversation is the art of hearing as well as of being heard.

WILLIAM HAZLITT

Selected Essays

Tags: William Hazlitt


A polite man is one who listens with interest to things he knows all about when they are told by a person who knows nothing about them.

CHARLES DE MORNY

attributed, All the Year Round: A Weekly Journal


Mindful listening is one of the highest compliments we can pay to others because it conveys the relationship-level meaning that they matter to us.

JULIA WOOD

Interpersonal Communication: Everyday Encounters


A bore finds it easy to start talking, and even easier to get others to stop listening.

EVAN ESAR

20,000 Quips & Quotes


Most of the successful people I've known are the ones who do more listening than talking.

BERNARD BARUCH

attributed, Caring Quotes: A Compendium of Caring Thought


The only thing worse than being on the wrong side of an argument is to be on the right side with no one listening.

EVAN ESAR

20,000 Quips & Quotes


Listen to the colour of your dreams.

THE BEATLES

"Tomorrow Never Knows", Revolver

Tags: The Beatles


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

WALTER ANDERSON

The Confidence Course: Seven Steps to Self-Fulfillment


There is a difference between listening and waiting for your turn to speak.

LISA FORD

attributed, Torch Tips for a Luminous Life


Effective listening is only achieved in an active and involved manner. It cannot be done passively.

JANE STEIN-PARBURY

Patient and Person: Interpersonal Skills in Nursing


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

MARGE PIERCY

O Magazine, Aug. 2006

Tags: Marge Piercy


Most people do not listen with the intent to understand; they listen with the intent to reply.

STEPHEN R. COVEY

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People