Quotes About Listening

Open your ears for National Day of Listening

Communication is the cornerstone of our relationships, and a huge part of that equation is listening to the people we’re communicating with. While today is the biggest shopping day of the year, it is also National Day of Listening, which encourages us to tell stories to our loved ones so we can preserve our histories and get to know each other better. These quotes are about the importance of listening and the value of opening our ears.

1. “One of the most sincere forms of respect is actually listening to what another has to say.” -Bryant H. McGill

2. “When people talk, listen completely. Most people never listen.” -Ernest Hemingway

3. “I tried to discover, in the rumor of forests and waves, words that other men could not hear, and I pricked up my ears to listen to the revelation of their harmony.” -Gustave Flaubert

4. “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.” -Leo Buscaglia

5. “Wisdom is the reward you get for a lifetime of listening when you’d have preferred to talk.” -Doug Larson

6. “If you make listening and observation your occupation, you will gain much more than you can by talk.” -Robert Baden-Powell

7. “Listen with curiosity. Speak with honesty. Act with integrity. The greatest problem with communication is we don’t listen to understand. We listen to reply. When we listen with curiosity, we don’t listen with the intent to reply. We listen for what’s behind the words.” -Roy T. Bennett

8. “I’m not afraid of confrontation. It doesn’t have to be an argument. We all have a voice. And they are all worth listening to.” -Adam Goodes

9. “An appreciative listener is always stimulating.” -Agatha Christie

10. “With the gift of listening comes the gift of healing.” -Catherine Doherty

11. “Knowledge speaks, but wisdom listens.” -Jimi Hendrix

12. “Listening is a magnetic and strange thing, a creative force. The friends who listen to us are the ones we move toward. When we are listened to, it creates us, makes us unfold and expand.” -Karl A. Menniger

13. “Sometimes all a person wants is an empathetic ear; all he or she needs is to talk it out. Just offering a listening ear and an understanding heart for his or her suffering can be a big comfort.” -Roy T. Bennett

14. “Learning is a result of listening, which in turn leads to even better listening and attentiveness to the other person. In other words, to learn from the child, we must have empathy, and empathy grows as we learn.” -Alice Miller

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

16. “Don’t worry that children never listen to you; worry that they are always watching you.” -Robert Fulghum

17. “Most of the successful people I’ve known are the ones who do more listening than talking.” -Bernard Baruch

18. “We have two ears and one mouth, so we should listen more than we say.” -Zeno of Citium

19. “Part of being successful is about asking questions and listening to the answers.” -Anne Burrell 20. “We can change the world if we change ourselves. We just need to get hold of the old patterns of thinking and dealing with things and start listening to our inner voices and trusting our own superpowers.” -Nina Hagen

21. “Friends are those rare people who ask how we are, and then wait to hear the answer.” -Ed Cunningham

22. “Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.” -Winston Churchill

23. “Listening is being able to be changed by the other person.” -Alan Alda

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

25. “We spend so much time listening to the things people are saying that we rarely pay attention to the things they don’t.” -Clint Smith

26. “Everything in writing begins with language. Language begins with listening.” -Jeanette Winterson

27. “There’s a lot of difference between listening and hearing.” -G. K. Chesterton

28. “Be a good listener….It makes the person who’s speaking to you feel loved, cared for, and worthy of being heard.” -Wayne Dyer

29. “Listen with the will to learn.” -Unarine Ramaru

30. “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

31. “There is as much wisdom in listening as there is in speaking — and that goes for all relationships, not just romantic ones.” -Daniel Dae Kim

32. “I’ve learned to get really good at this — say one thing when I’m thinking about something else, act like I’m listening when I’m not, pretend to be calm and happy when I’m really freaking out. It’s one of the skills you perfect as you get older.” -Lauren Oliver

33. “Women like silent men. They think they’re listening.” -Marcel Achard

34. “Bravery is the choice to show up and listen to another person, be it a loved one or perceived foe, even when it is uncomfortable, painful, or the last thing you want to do.” -Alaric Hutchinson

35. “Ears are made not for hearing, but for listening. Listening is an active skill, whereas hearing is passive. Listening is something that we have to work at — it’s a relationship with sound. And yet, it’s a skill that none of us are taught.” -Julian Treasure

36. “The most important thing in communication is hearing what isn’t said.” -Peter Drucker

37. “You’re short on ears and long on mouth.” -John Wayne

38. “It’s so important to keep a marriage alive with small treats and doing little things for each other. Just remembering to say nice things and to have listening time is vital. That ghastly phrase ‘quality time’ means taking three minutes to sit down and be still with someone, rather than yelling over your shoulder as you rush out.” -Joanna Lumley

39. “When we listen, we hear someone into existence.” -Laurie Buchanan

40. “Doubt yourself and you doubt everything you see. Judge yourself and you see judges everywhere. But if you listen to the sound of your own voice, you can rise above doubt and judgment. And you can see forever.” -Nancy Lopez

41. “The art of conversation lies in listening.” -Malcom Forbes

42. “Part of doing something is listening. We are listening. To the sun. To the stars. To the wind.” -Madeleine L’Engle

43. “No siren did ever so charm the ear of the listener as the listening ear has charmed the soul of the siren.” -Henry Taylor 44. “Emma felt that she could not now show greater kindness than in listening.” -Jane Austen

45. “Know how to listen, and you will profit even from those who talk badly.” -Plutarch

46. “You cannot truly listen to anyone and do anything else at the same time.” -M. Scott Peck

47. “It’s not at all hard to understand a person; it’s only hard to listen without bias.” -Criss Jami

48. “There’s something about the silence of people listening to someone or watching someone. I love that.” -Sam Heughan

49. “The word ‘listen’ contains the same letters as the word ‘silent.’” -Alfred Brendel

50. “A person hears only what they understand.” -Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

More from Kiki Wellington:

Sources:

Kerpen, D. 15 Quotes to Inspire You to Become a Better Listener. Inc.com. https://www.inc.com/dave-kerpen/15-quotes-to-inspire-you-to-become-a-better-listener.html

Listening Quotes. BrainyQuote. https://www.brainyquote.com/topics/listening-quotes

Listening Quotes. Goodreads. https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/listening

Listening Quotes That Express the Importance of Listening. Everyday Power. https://everydaypower.com/listening-quotes/