Brenda Ueland Quotes

We should all know this: that listening is not talking; [it] is the gifted and great role and the imaginative role. And the true listener is much more beloved, magnetic than the talker, and he is more effective, and learns more and does more good. And so try listening. Listen to your wife, your husband, your father, your mother, your children, your friends; to those who love you and those who don't, to those who bore you, to your enemies. It will work a small miracle. And perhaps a great one.

When you listen, you learn, You absorb like a sponge - and your life becomes so much better than when you are just trying to be listened to all the time.

The key ingredient in family communication is listening, really listening.

Few people...have had much training in listening. The training of most oververbalized professional intellectuals is in the opposite direction. Living in a competitive culture, most of us are most of the time chiefly concerned with getting our own views across, and we tend to find other people's speeches a tedious interruption of the flow of our own ideas.

Listening is everything. Listening is the whole deal. That's what I think. And I mean that in terms of before you work, after you work, in between work, with your children, with your husband, with your friends, with your mother, with your father. It's everything. And it's where you learn everything.

To become a master communicator: shut your mouth & listen first.

Everybody talks, nobody listens. Good listeners are as rare as white crows.

For maximum impact, listen more and speak less.

Listening is as important as talking. If you're a good listener, people often compliment you for being a good conversationalist.

Listen twice as much as you speak.

I'm glad I understand that while language is a gift, listening is a responsibility. (U.S. poet and writer, 1943- )

Many people may listen, but few people actually hear.

"You learn when you listen. You earn when you listen - not just money, but respect.

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 communication goes in both directions.

Proper listening is the foundation of proper living.

We should all know this: that listening, not talking, is the gifted and great role, and the imaginative role.

[John F.] Kennedy was a great listener. As he listened his eyes got larger, and he looked at you, and you knew you had been looked at and listened to.

Listening is terribly important if you want to understand anything about people. You listen to what they say and how they say it, what they share and what they are reticent about, what they tell truthfully and what they lie about, what they hope for and what they fear, what they are proud of, what they are ashamed of. If you don't pay attention to other people, how can you understand their choices through time and how their stories come out?

There’s a difference between listening passively and listening aggressively. To listen with your heart, you have to listen actively.

If I listen long enough, the person will generally come up with an adequate solution.

Listening is much more than allowing another to talk while waiting for a chance to respond. Listening is paying full attention to others and welcoming them into our very beings. The beauty of listening is that those who are listened to start feeling accepted, start taking our words more seriously and discovering their true selves.

Sometimes you have to be silent to be heard.

It seemed rather incongruous that in a society of super sophisticated communication, we often suffer from a shortage of listeners.

Listening is the hard part. Listening is the important part. The hot button is in the prospect's response.

Listen more than you talk. Nobody learned anything by hearing themselves speak.