Best 1940 quotes in «listening quotes» category

The one thing that everybody appreciates and wants when they're speaking is to know that what they say matters so much, you might actually change your mind.

The only problem is the heart is quiet. It takes a very special kind of person to hear what the heart says. Most can't hear it at all and they have to guess. There are a lot of people walking around just guessing.

The only way to know God, the only way to know the other, is to listen. Listening is reaching out into that unknown other self, surmounting your walls and theirs; listening is the beginning of understanding, the first exercise of love. None of us listen enough, do we, dear? We only listen to a fraction of what people say. It's a wonderfully useful thing to do. You almost always hear something you didn't expect.

The person you're most afraid to contradict is yourself.

The pleasure derived from listening to the vices of others does not make us wiser nor does it make us any more virtuous. It only makes the vices more acceptable. People start believing that they can lower their moral standards because others are doing the same. There is great frustration in the society due to half truths and false stories spread by media.

The practice of deep listening is the practice of open inquiry, without assumption or judgement.

There are big advantages of living for God, therefore try to spend every minute you have walking with Him, listening to Him and learning of His wisdom

There are people you meet that light the darkest corners of your mind. They don't ask you questions. They don't intimidate you. They just look at you and they smile. They smile because they know what it feels like to have been where you are or because they have this inner ability to understand where you are coming from. They don't hold your hand. They don't hug you. They don't tell you it's going to be okay or shower you with words of love. They give you some of their time and a bit of their presence. And something only few people really master: To listen genuinely to what you have to say.

There is a kind of listening with half an ear that presumes already to know what the other person has to say. It is an impatient, inattentive listening, that despises the brother and is only waiting for a chance to speak and thus get rid of the other person. This is no fulfillment of our obligation, and it is certain that here too our attitude toward our brother only reflects our relationship to God. It is little wonder that we are no longer capable of the greatest service of listening that God has committed to us, that of hearing our brother's confession, if we refuse to give ear to our brother on lesser subjects. Secular education today is aware that often a person can be helped merely by having someone who will listen to him seriously, and upon this insight it has constructed its own soul therapy, which has attracted great numbers of people, including Christians. But Christians have forgotten that the ministry of listening has been committed to them by Him who is Himself the great listener and whose work they should share. We should listen with the ears of God that we may speak the Word of God.

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

There is no doubt that I am selective in my listening, hence "directive" if people wish to accuse me of this. I am centered in the group member who is speaking, and am unquestionably much less interested in the details of his quarrel with his wife, or of his difficulties on the job, or his disagreement with what has just been said, than in the meaning these experience have for him now and the feeling they arouse in him. It is to these meanings and feelings that I try to respond.

There is music the moment you start listening.

There is no greater path than the act of listening.

There is a saying that, paper is more patient than man.

There is more to hear in what is not said.

There is no greater path than the act of listening, because the observer who listens can begin to see themselves as a part of one expression of purpose and beingness.

There you go again, declaring the exact inverse of your experience. You human pups are so full of the things you're sure of. Sit down and listen for a change.

There is something divine, mystical, magical and unexplainable in the universe that is listening and responding to each of us.

There’s no better way to serve and nourish the magnificence in another person than to simply listen to them openheartedly and without judgment.

There was something in the way he posed a question and followed it up with a generous pause, I think, that drew me out. I had never noticed all the pauses that were missing from most people's conversations.

There was a patient who sat with her family in a circle around her, all holding hands. Sister Philomena asked if they would like to join her for prayers and they said yes, they would. They closed their eyes as Sister Philomena whispered the words and I thought this must be the nearest humans get to whatever God is, when they hold hands and listen.

The source calls to you. Find a quiet place and listen for the voice of creation. Look upon the horizon and see the future of your new life, where you are again a natural soul living in joy and peace.

The sort of people that we become is, in large part, determined by the voices that we choose to listen to. Truly, we do not have a choice of listening versus not listening. We all obey certain voices, and thus the question is not “Will I listen?” but “Which voices will I listen to?” But it is not only a matter of choosing to listen to good voices over bad ones. If only it were as simple as the proverbial whispering angel and devil on our shoulders. It is also a matter of whether we will choose to listen to different voices, voices that don’t sound the same as our own. Will we listen to the voices of different cultures, ethnicities, backgrounds and beliefs? Will we listen to the voices that unsettle us and might make us feel anxious or guilty? If we choose to listen only to voices that echo our own, we will be limited in our growth and stunted in our spirituality. Choosing to tune in to only one or two stations may be comfortable, but it is not transformative. The voices we want to hear are not always the same as the voices we need to hear.

The silences in conversation honor and support the words they carry, as water supports the vessels that float on it. Only in silence can the "listening into" take place - the pausing over words, meanings, implications, associations - and the waiting - for the Spirit to speak, for the right response to a surface. At its deepest level, good conversation holds a balance we seek in prayer between speaking and listening, waiting for the unplanned, epiphanic moment that comes unbidden in the midst of what we thought we were pursuing. Those silences also distinguish substantive conversation from idle chatter that fills all the "air time" available, often as a protection against the silences in which a new thought might take us where we're not sure we want to go. When silences are allowed, conversation can rise to the level of sacred encounter.

The story is told of Mother Theresa that when an interviewer asked her. "What do you say when you pray?" she answered, "I listen." The reporters paused a moment, then asked, "Then what does God say?" and she replied, "He listens." It is hard to imagine a more succinct way to get at the intimacy of contemplative prayer.

The subtle whispers, cues and nudges are there as guideposts, to gently carry the humble listener along the path back to the source and the true self.

The Tone is the Message.

The universe flirts with you. Shun her seduction and you may destroy the best pathway to your dreams.

the ultimate meaning of words cannot be found in what the listener hears but in what he listens to upon hearing

The train will not find you. You must find the train, its pulse, its way of being beyond obvious rock and sway. The train’s pulse is deeper than movement. If you listen, you will hear the song of the train, and when you find the song, you will find the engine, the heart, the blood, the pulse. This is how we create.

...the way to a friend's heart is through your ears.

the voice taunted, and threatened: "you are afraid, unhappy, dissatisfied, what if…." but I knew, this was not His language for motivating my heart, so I waited quietly to hear my Father's native tongue, "I love, I am satisfied, I trust, this is the way..." - and I moved.

The voice of the Soul can be heard within the silence of the unaffected mind. Listen.

This is the foundation of the law of listening: You have to listen to understand.

The world had a way of speaking to you if you let it; the trick was learning to hear.

They praised his modesty and did not listen to him, for listening is a rare gift, and men will have their heroes.

They listened more than they talked, but that was the way of wise men and women.

This life is a deafening roar but listen. You could hear a pin drop.

This process of assimilation, which takes place in depth, requires a state of relaxation that is becoming rarer and rarer. If sleep is the apogee of physical relaxation, boredom is the apogee of mental relaxation. Boredom is the dream bird that hatches the egg of experience. A rustling in the leaves drives him away. His nesting places - the activities that are intimately associated with boredom - are already extinct in the cities and are declining in the country as well. With this the gift for listening is lost and the community of listeners disappears. For storytelling is always the art of repeated stories, and this art is lost when the stories are no longer retained.

To hear is one thing, to know is another.

Those who have a listening heart can hear the song of silence.

Thought before word. Never word before thought.

To compose poetry is about listening, ...not to contrive, it is, so to speak, about bringing forth something that already exists-this is why when one reads great poetry, when often gets this ‘I-new-all-of-this-already, I-just-didn’t-express-it’ feeling. Language listens to itself.

To intelligent people, listening means taking a second, to actually listen to understand what the person is actually saying, beyond their words.

To carefully listen is a powerful way of saying to another that we value that person. When we take the time to understand we communicate that we care, we want to understand, we respect their expression, we give dignity and an individual sense of worth. Communication lies more in feeling than in words.

To listen to a person is not passive.

top connecting with the world. Connect with yourself on your beach. Stop thinking. Stop analyzing. Start feeling. Start dreaming.

To open eyes when others close them To hear when others do not wish to listen To look when others turn away To seek to understand when others give up To rouse oneself when others accept To continue to struggle when one is not the strongest To cry out when others keep silent…

To talk less and be a better listener is the lifelong quest of a good friend.

To walk quietly until the miracle in everything speaks is poetry, whether we write it down or not.