Louis Kronenberger Quotes

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.

When two friends are in the mood to chat, we have to go about it in a gentler and more dialectical way. By 'more dialectical,' I mean not only that we give real responses, but that we base our responses solely on what the interlocutor admits that he himself knows.

Listening well and answering well is one of the greatest perfections that can be obtained in conversation.

Change comes from listening, learning, caring and conversation.

The great challenge facing us today is to learn once again how to talk to one another, not simply how to generate and consume information.

Listen more often than you speak.

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

Reasonable men are the best dictionaries of conversation.

Gary Cooper - the greatest listener in the world! And he used to answer in kind, which is wonderful because you don't see that anymore. People don't listen. They really don't.

Most people never listen.

Be a good listener. Encourage others to talk about themselves.

Listening is not only about waiting, but it's also learning how better to ask questions.

I learned real early why God gave us two ears and one mouth, because you're supposed to listen twice as much as you talk.

When you want to hear a philosopher, do not say, 'You say nothing to me'; only show yourself worthy or fit to hear, and then you will see how you will move the speaker.

The great secret of succeeding in conversation is to admire little, to hear much; always to distrust our own reason, and sometimes that of our friends; never to pretend to wit, but to make that of others appear as much as possibly we can; to hearken to what is said and to answer to the purpose.

I am worried that the next generation will not be able to have a real conversation.

To be alive is to listen quietly while other people talk. That's how you learn something.

People don't listen, they just wait for their turn to talk.

It's one thing to communicate to people because you believe you have something of value to say. It's another to communicate with people because you believe they have value.

The difference between listening and pretending to listen, I discovered, is enormous. One is fluid, the other is rigid. One is alive, the other is stuffed. Eventually, I found a radical way of thinking about listening. Real listening is a willingness to let the other person change you. When I’m willing to let them change me, something happens between us that’s more interesting than a pair of dueling monologues.

I think communication is key, too. You're answering all the questions. Thank you. I'll just sit back here.

Already for thirty-five years he had not stopped talking and almost nothing of fundamental value had emerged.

The art of conversation lies in listening.

It was too important a matter, this talking to people, and listening to them, to do it lightly or often.

Table talk, to be perfect, should be sincere without bigotry, differing without discord, sometimes grave, always agreeable, touching on deep points, dwelling most on seasonable ones, and letting everybody speak and be heard.