Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield Quotes

Tone is often the most important part of a conversation - and listening is so much more important than what you say.

People love to talk but hate to listen.

Most of us recognize how important it is to listen respectfully when our loved ones are talking; but we often forget that it is equally important to talk respectfully when they are listening.

When you speak words that are relevant to people, they automatically shut up and you know you are in the presence of some very magical words. It's a gift when someone can listen and be quiet and not interrupt.

Most of the successful people I know mostly listen, not talk.

Finding new ways, more clever ways to interrupt people doesn't work.

Before you speak, listen.

Be slow to speak, and only after having first listened quietly, so that you may understand the meaning, leanings, and wishes of those who do speak. Thus you will better know when to speak and when to be silent.

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.

Kanye's the best listener I've ever worked with. If I interrupt Kanye, every single time, he'll wait for me to finish before speaking. It's a running joke - sometimes I interrupt him just to see. And he always goes, 'No, no, finish. I want to hear what you have to say.'

I definitely learned a lot about how to be more communicative with my crews.

It is a secret known but to few, yet of no small use in the conduct of life, that when you fall into a man's conversation, the first thing you should consider is, whether he has a greater inclination to hear you, or that you should hear him.

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.

People who don't listen make me annoyed. That's the normal stuff, isn't it?

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?

...people have character strength but they lack communication skills, and that undoubtedly affects the quality of relationships as well.

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

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

Respectful communication under conflict or opposition is an essential and truly awe-inspiring ability.

I don't just want to talk to the choir. I want to sit down and be respectful of the people who are most unlike me, to get them to hear me and think. It doesn't mean you're going to change them right there, but just so they can hear you and what you're saying.

Were we as eloquent as angels we still would please people much more by listening rather than talking.

For maximum impact, listen more and speak less.

Skillful listening is the best remedy for loneliness, loquaciousness, and laryngitis.

Let thy carriage be such as becomes a man grave settled and attentive to that which is spoken. Contradict not, at every turn, what others say.

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