“If speaking is silver, then listening is gold.” – Turkish Proverb
For your consideration as we begin a new school year, quotes about listening.
“But the seed that were sown on the good soil are the ones who hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold.” -Mark 4, 20
“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
“To be listened to is, generally speaking, a nearly unique expe- rience 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 free- dom to express himself and for knowing that he counts. But once offered these conditions, he becomes frightened.” — Robert C. Murphy
“I think the one lesson I have learned is that there is no substi-tute for paying attention.”— Diane Sawyer
“Seek first to understand, then to be understood.”-Stephen R. Covey
“To say that a person feels listened to means a lot more than just their ideas get heard. It’s a sign of respect. It makes people feel valued.”— Deborah Tannen
“Just being available and attentive is a great way to use listen- ing as a management tool. Some employees will come in, talk for twenty minutes, and leave having solved their problems entirely by themselves.” -Nicholas V. Luppa
“I would say that listening to the other person’s emotions may be the most important thing I’ve learned in twenty years of business.” -Heath Herber
“Of all the skills of leadership, listening is the most valuable— and one of the least understood. Most captains of industry lis- ten only sometimes, and they remain ordinary leaders. But a few, the great ones, never stop listening. That’s how they get word before anyone else of unseen problems and opportunities.”
“A good listener is not only popular everywhere, but after a while he gets to know something.” -Wilson Mizner
“Wisdom is the reward for a lifetime of listening … when you’d have preferred to talk.” -J. Kaufman
“The best time to hold your tongue is the time you feel you must say something or bust.”— Josh Billings
“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 Menninger
“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.” -Kenneth A. Wells
“The saddest part about being human is not paying attention. Presence is the gift of life.” -Stephen Levine
“Who speaks, sows; Who listens, reaps.” -Argentine Proverb
“I remind myself every morning: Nothing I say this day will teach me anything. So if I’m going to learn, I must do it by lis- tening.”
“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.” – Albert Guinon
“When people talk, listen completely. Most people never listen.” -Ernest Hemingway
“Be a good listener. Your ears will never get you in trouble.” -Frank Tyger
“I only wish I could find an institute that teaches people how to listen. Business people need to listen at least as much as they need to talk. Too many people fail to realize that real communi-cation goes in both directions.” -Larry King
“The key to success is to get out into the store and listen to what the associates have to say. It’s terribly important for eve- ryone to get involved. Our best ideas come from clerks and stockboys.” -Sam Walton