George Washington Quotes

When you're in a conversation, genuinely be in it. Stare people in their eyes. Know what you're talking about. Enjoy that moment.

[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.

When my brothers and I were young, my mom, a Democrat, and my dad, a Republican, used to lead freewheeling discussions at our dinner table. The only rule was paying attention when others were talking, and no interrupting.

Here's the problem: People have completely and utterly forgotten one thing when it comes to communication - intent.

If you let things devolve into a shouting match, then it's really difficult to have a discussion, a serious discussion.

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.

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.

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.

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

The orator puts off his individuality, and is then most eloquent when most silent. He listens while he speaks, and is a hearer along with his audience.

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.

A good listener is very nearly as attractive as a good talker. You cannot have a beautiful mind if you do not know how to listen.

I have always endeavoured to listen to what each and every person in a discussion had to say before venturing my own opinion.

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- )

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

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

And the true listener is much more beloved, magnetic than the talker, and he is more effective and learns more and does more good

I did not hear what I should have listened to.

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

Never hold anyone by the button or the hand in order to be heard out; for if people are unwilling to hear you, you had better hold your tongue than them.

The first evil those who are prone to talk suffer, is that they hear nothing.

Here is why I will be a good person. Because I listen. I cannot speak so I listen very well. I never interrupt, I never deflect the course of the conversation with a comment of my own. ...I beg of you, pretend you are a dog like me and LISTEN to other people rather than steal their stories.

Let people speak. Let people disagree. Communicate. Listen. Have high-respect, if not for your opponent, then for your own comportment and conduct as a good listener.