We should be reminded that listening is just as valuable as speaking since communication is a two-way process. And in order to understand each other, both sides must make an effort to listen wholeheartedly. So let’s take some time to pause our thoughts and give way to others with these 147 quotes about listening.
Quotes About Listening
1. The art of conversation lies in listening. – Malcolm Forbes
2. 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
3. Listening is not merely not talking, though even that is beyond most of our powers; it means taking a vigorous, human interest in what is being told us. – Alice Deur Miller
4. Listening is an art that requires attention over talent, spirit over ego, others over self. – Dean Jackson
5. Wisdom is the reward you get for a lifetime of listening when you would have rather talked. – Mark Twain
6. And in a world where there’s too much noise and not enough signal, listening is critical. – Peter Shankman
7. The gift of listening makes people want to speak with you. This gift means that you listen and not barge in with your own thoughts. – Catherine Pulsifer
8. Listening is the art and practice of putting someone else’s speaking, thinking and feeling needs ahead of your own. It is deliberate and thoughtful, not contrived or self-serving. It fosters emotional and intellectual reflection. It is an art, because it involves more than mere technique, and because it is very much about the communication and affirmation of feelings. – Marc Wong
9. I believe that one should listen first …. Listening builds rapport and trust. Unless you build that trust with listening, not much else is going to happen. – John Savage
10. A significant part of showing respect is simply listening. We offer our presence and open ears – listening to the hidden hurts and heartaches, the deepest dreams and desires of one another. – Rick Warren
11. I like to listen. I have learned a great deal from listening carefully. Most people never listen. – Ernest Hemingway
12. 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 listening. – Larry King
13. Listening is such a simple act. It requires us to be present, and that takes practice, but we don’t have to do anything else. We don’t have to advise, or coach, or sound wise. We just have to be willing to sit there and listen. – Margaret J. Wheatley
14. Listening has importance only when one is not projecting one’s own desires through which one listens. – Jiddu Krishnamurti
15. The biggest mistake most people make when it comes to listening is they’re so focused on what they’re going to say next or how what the other person is saying is going to affect them that they fail to hear what’s being said. – Travis Bradberry
16. Listening is a positive act: you have to put yourself out to do it. – David Hockney
17. Here’s the thing: When you become brilliant at listening, people feel that you care about them. When they feel you care about them, they begin to care about you. And when people care about you, your success becomes a part of how they define their success. – Robin S. Sharma
18. Listening is active. At its most basic level, it’s about focus, paying attention. – Simon Sinek
19. It is a mistake to assume that everyone listens like you do: your listening is as unique as your fingerprints, and so is everyone else’s. – Julian Treasure
20. Listening is an attitude of the heart, a genuine desire to be with another which both attracts and heals. – J. Isham
21. 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
22. Most people do not listen with the intent to understand; they listen with the intent to reply. – Stephen R. Covey
23. You can’t fake listening. It shows. – Raquel Welch
24. Part of doing something is listening. We are listening. To the sun. To the stars. To the wind. – Madeleine L’Engle
25. Listening is a gift of spiritual significance that you can learn to give to others. When you listen, you give one a sense of importance, hope and love that he or she may not receive any other way. Through listening, we nurture and validate the feelings one has, especially when he or she experiences difficulties in life. – H. Norman Wright
26. Listen with your eyes as well as your ears. – Graham Speechley
27. Listening is an effect. Communication is cause. – Meir Ezra
28. Not everyone with a problem needs you to solve it. Sometimes all a person needs is to feel like they’ve been heard. Listening without judging can be more effective than injecting your opinions or trying to solve a problem that doesn’t have an easy answer. – Zero Dean
29. Effective listening is the single most powerful thing you can do to build and maintain a climate of trust and collaboration. Strong listening skills are the foundation for all solid relationships. – Michelle Tillis Lederman
30. When we listen, we hear someone into existence. – Laurie Buchanan
31. We all fare better when we can balance freely expressing and quietly listening. – Cathy Burnham Martin
32. Listening leads us more inside ourselves whereas seeing leads us more outside—the work of seeing itself, that is. And, therefore, we will be far more blessed with eternal life by the power of listening than by the power of sight. The act of listening allows me to hear the eternal Word spoken with me, whereas sight leads me astray, to what is outside myself. In listening, I suffer (or allow); in seeing, I work. – Meister Eckhart
33. To intelligent people, listening means taking a second, to actually listen to understand what the person is actually saying, beyond their words. – Tony Dovale
34. One learns more from listening than speaking. And both the wind and the people who continue to live close to nature still have much to tell us which we cannot hear within university walls. – Thor Heyerdahl
35. Listening is hard work. Listen carefully not only with your ears, but also listen with all of your senses. You will understand better. – Debasish Mridha
36. It’s always the mind that needs quietening and the heart that needs listening to. – Rasheed Ogunlaru
37. Listening is two part, attention and thinking. The latter is what a lot of us don’t do. – Hadi Farnoud
38. During a conversation, listening is as powerful as loving. – Amit Kalantri
39. The practice of deep listening is the practice of open inquiry, without assumption or judgement. – Sharon Weil
40. Listening is where love begins: listening to ourselves and then to our neighbors. – Fred Rogers
41. Listening has the quality of the wizard’s alchemy. It has the power to melt armor and to produce beauty in the midst of hatred. – Brian Muldoon
42. Your ability to move others into appropriate, timely, and effective action is largely determined by the consequences of your speaking and listening. – Suzanne Mayo Frindt
43. If you want to be listened to, you should put in time listening. – Marge Piercy
44. Whole-hearted listening is the greatest spiritual gift you can give to the other person. – Harriet Lerner
45. Listening is about being present, not just about being quiet. – Krista Tippett
46. Listening is the beginning of understanding…
Wisdom is the reward for a lifetime of listening.
Let the wise listen and add to their learning and let the discerning get guidance
– Proverbs 1:5
47. Listening is a hug you give with your mind. – Barbara Nixon
48. Listening is the ultimate antidote for healing hurting hearts. – Lyman K. Steil
49. True listening is more of a focused action rather than a random movement. – Dr. Jeff Carter
50. Most of the successful people I’ve known are the ones who do more listening than talking. – Bernard M. Baruch
51. Good listening works magic… Listen intently intentionally! – Frank Bettger
52. Listening to something is an act of surrender. – Brian Eno
53. I’m glad I understand that while language is a gift, listening is a responsibility. – Nikki Giovanni
54. While the right to talk may be the beginning of freedom, the necessity of listening is what makes the right important. – Walter Lippmann
55. Listening means forgetting yourself completely – only then can you listen. – Osho
56. Listening is not just hearing what someone tells you word for word. You have to listen with a heart. I don’t want that to sound touchy-feely; it is not. It is very hard work. – Anna Deavere Smith
57. 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. – Brenda Ueland
58. God speaks in the silence of the heart. Listening is the beginning of prayer. – Mother Teresa
59. Listening is being able to be changed by the other person. – Alan Alda
60. In a good conversation, listening is as important as talking. – Steve Brown
61. It’s a mistake to think we listen only with our ears. It’s much more important to listen with the mind, the eyes, the body, and the heart. Unless you truly want to understand the other person, you’ll never be able to listen. – Mark Herndon
62. Listening to people keeps them entertained. – Mason Cooley
63. Listening is more important than talking. Just hit your mark and believe what you say. Just listen to people and react to what they are saying. – Jimmy Fallon
64. 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. – Tony Hendra
65. Listening is receptivity. The deeper you can listen, the better you can write. You can take in the way things are without judgment, and the next day you can write the truth about the way things are. – Natalie Goldberg
66. Patience is a virtue as they say and listening is an exercise in patience. – Kaleb Kilton
67. Good listening places us on an edifice of learning complex human behavior. – Balroop Singh
68. Listening, not imitation, may be the sincerest form of flattery. – Joyce Brothers
69. If speaking is silver, then listening is gold. – Turkish Proverbs
70. The biggest barrier in communication is that tendency of listening to reply and not to understand. – Wilson M. Mukama
71. Truly listening, attentively, and with care, is one of the simplest and most kind gifts we can give anyone. – John Bruna
72. Ultimately, the best speakers are the ones who have put 10,000 hours into listening. – James Altucher
73. Listening is huge. Learn to listen. And it’s hard: relationships are not easy; most of them don’t last. I mean, when you look at what’s really going on. So every day is a choice, and sense of freedom is important. – Goldie Hawn
74. Remember that listening stops the instant someone starts talking to himself or herself silently. – Suzette Haden Elgin
75. If you aren’t listening, you aren’t learning. – Lyndon Baines Johnson
76. Listening is a high art of loving. Ask yourself, when was the last time I really listened to my child? My parent? My brother or sister? When someone is ready to share, three magic words amplify your connection, and they are: “Tell me more.” – Rev. Mary Manin Morrissey
77. One must talk little and listen much. – African Proverb
78. Knowledge talks, wisdom listens. – Jimi Hendrix
79. Honor your relationships by developing listening skills. – Allan Lokos
80. Show your intelligence by listening as twice as you can talk, simply because we have two ears and one tongue. – Epictetus
81. Don’t think or judge, just listen. – Sarah Dessen
82. Listening well and answering well is one of the greatest perfections that can be obtained in conversation. – Francois de La Rochefoucauld
83. Listening to and understanding our inner sufferings will resolve most of the problems we encounter. – Thich Nhat Hanh
84. You have to master not only the art of listening to your head, you must also master listening to your heart and listening to your gut. – Carly Fiorina
85. Somewhere we know that without silence words lose their meaning, that without listening speaking no longer heals, that without distance closeness cannot cure. – Henri Nouwen
86. Tone is often the most important part of a conversation – and listening is so much more important than what you say. – Hoda Kotb
87. The best way to persuade people is with your ears – by listening to them. – Dean Rusk
88. The person who talks a lot or talks over people misses out because they weren’t listening. – Jackie Joyner-Kersee
89. If you take away the gift of reading, you create the gift of listening. – Malcolm Gladwell
90. It takes a great man to be a good listener. – Calvin Coolidge
91. In the night of death, hope sees a star, and listening love can hear the rustle of a wing. – Robert Green Ingersoll
92. Maybe you’re so good at listening that you have no idea when to speak. – S.M. Boyce
93. Talk a little less, listen a little more, and you’ll be a lot wiser. – Eric Gibbons
94. Listening to other people’s perspectives does not make your perspectives any less important. Listen more. – Akiroq Brost
95. Bravery is listening even when you don’t want to hear it. – Alaric Hutchinson
96. Listen to others very carefully. Shut your inner noise and focus on verbal and non verbal cues. – Abhishek Ratna
97. Listening is the key. The whole objective of a howl is to be heard. – Amit Pandey
98. Listening is seeking synchronicity with the speaker. – Michael Rost
99. When listening to another person, don’t just listen with your mind, listen with your whole body. You are giving the other person space — space to be. It is the most precious gift you can give. – Eckhart Tolle
100. Good listening is a process of showing respect and validating a person’s worth. – Michelle Lucas
101. The word listening is defined as making an effort to hear something; to pay attention or heed. It is different from hearing, which is the physiological process of the ear absorbing sound waves and transferring them along neural pathways to parts of the brain. Hearing is necessary for listening, but listening is much more than processing sound. Someone may hear very well but be a very poor listener. – Lisa J. Downs
102. 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
103. You listen to people so that you can imagine them, and you hear all the terrible and wonderful things people do to themselves and to one another, but in the end the listening exposes you even more than it exposes the people you’re trying to listen to. – John Green
104. Effective listening is only achieved in an active and involved manner. It cannot be done passively. – Jane Stein-Parbury
105. Listening is an underrated asset. People these days, they don’t listen as much as they should. I read a lot, I travel a lot and I’m always listening. – David Baldacci
106. The key to good listening isn’t technique, it’s desire. Until we truly want to understand the other person, we’ll never listen well. – Steve Goodier
107. Remain open-minded, even when you believe yourself to be a king among peasants. You never know what blessings can be gained or crises averted just by listening. – A.J. Darkholme
108. Listening is an act of love. When you listen to people, you are communicating non-verbally that they are important to you. – Jim George
109. Listen like every sentence matters; talk like every word counts. – Geoffrey Tumlin
110. There is a difference between truly listening and waiting for your turn to talk. – Ralph Waldo Emerson
111. People will feel safer around you and speak truthfully to you when they feel you are listening intently to them. – Brian Koslow
112. Reminding myself that listening is just as important a creative act as thinking is key for me. – Maya Hawke
113. To learn through listening, practice it naively and actively. Naively means that you listen openly, ready to learn something, as opposed to listening defensively, ready to rebut. Listening actively means you acknowledge what you heard and act accordingly. – Betsy Sanders
114. If you make listening and observation your occupation, you will gain much more than you can by talk. – Robert Baden-Powell
115. Set up the listening. Prepare who you are talking to for what you want them to hear. Get people to listen as a possibility rather than a problem. – Mal Pancoast
116. Genuine listening is hard work; there is little about it that is mechanical… We hear with our ears, but we listen with our eyes and mind and heart and skin and guts as well. – Alfred Benjamin
117. Listening looks easy, but it’s not simple. Every head is a world. – Cuban proverb
118. If you’re forming a rebuttal, you’re not really listening. – Jane Klivans
119. Silence is the training ground for the art of listening. – Linda Douty
120. Listening moves us closer, it helps us become more whole, more healthy, more holy. Not listening creates fragmentation, and fragmentation is the root of all suffering. – Margaret J. Wheatley
121. Listening well is an exercise of attention and by necessity hard work. It is because they do not realize this or because they are not willing to do the work that most people do not listen well. – M. Scott Peck
122. In real ways, we are invited each day to slow down and listen. But why listen at all? Because listening stitches the world together. Because listening is the doorway to everything that matters. It enlivens the heart the way breathing enlivens the lungs. We listen to awaken our heart. We do this to stay vital and alive. This is the work of reverence: to stay vital and alive by listening deeply. – Mark Nepo
123. Really listening and suspending one’s own judgment is necessary in order to understand other people on their own terms. As we have noted, this is a process that requires trust and builds trust. – Mary Field Belenky
124. Listening is so basic that we take it for granted. Unfortunately, most of us think of ourselves as better listeners than we really are. – Michael P. Nichols
125. The art of listening needs its highest development in listening to oneself; our most important task is to develop an ear that can really hear what we’re saying. – Sydney J. Harris
126. Deep listening is miraculous for both listener and speaker. When someone receives us with open-hearted, non-judging, intensely interested listening, our spirits expand. – Sue Patton Thoele
127. There is nothing wrong with listening. You can listen to people; you can hear people’s concerns. You can keep an open mind and still be perfectly strong. – Bill de Blasio
128. Sometimes listening is of greater value than speaking. – Benjamin Watson
129. God will use us for his purposes, but it takes a certain kind of listening. – Henry B. Eyring
130. You learn the most by listening and so, to me, always just listening, always just paying attention and finding out what it is that people see in somebody like them. You find those things, and you try to figure out how to fit them into who you are, who you want to be, and how you want to lead. – Andrew Whitworth
131. We think we listen, but very rarely do we listen with real understanding, true empathy. Yet listening, of this very special kind, is one of the most potent forces for change that I know. – Carl Rogers
132. Listening to both sides does not necessarily bring about a correct judgment. – Donald Rumsfeld
133. Years ago, I tried to top everybody, but I don’t anymore. I realized it was killing conversation. When you’re always trying for a topper you aren’t really listening. It ruins communication. – Groucho Marx
134. 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
135. With the gift of listening comes the gift of healing. – Catherine Doherty
136. The sheer act of listening speaks volumes that even a great speech can’t communicate. – John C. Maxwell
137. Lead by listening – to be a good leader you have to be a great listener. – Richard Branson
138. Hearing is listening to what is said. Listening is hearing what isn’t said. – Simon Sinek
139. Listening is more than being quiet. Listening is much more than silence. Listening requires undivided attention. The time to listen is when someone needs to be heard. The time to deal with a person with a problem is when he has the problem. The time to listen is the time when our interest and love are vital to the one who seeks our ear, our heart, our help, and our empathy. – Marvin J. Ashton
140. Listening is very inexpensive; not listening could be very costly! – Tom Brewer
141. Listening takes practice, and it takes patience. But I promise, if you listen, your story will be better for it. – Howard Gordon
142. Listening to someone talk isn’t at all like listening to their words played over on a machine. What you hear when you have a face before you is never what you hear when you have before you a winding tape. – Oriana Fallaci
143. You stop growing when you stop listening. – Frederick Lenz
144. The biggest challenge in working together is simply listening. – Colette Freedman
145. Listen first and never stop listening. – Dave Kerpen
146. Stay to yourself, just listen. Do more listening than talking. The more you speak the higher the chances you sayin the wrong thing. – Curtis Jackson
147. Listening is not a skill; it is a discipline. – Peter Drucker