M. Scott Peck Quotes

A good listener is usually thinking about something else.

When people are speaking, they require our undivided attention. We focus on them; we listen very carefully. We listen to the spoken words and the unspoken messages. This means looking directly at the person, eyes connected; we forget we have a watch, just focusing for that moment on that person.

I find it so easy to get distracted - I try not to do more than one thing at any one time.

Your conscious brain cannot multitask. If I'm speaking to you and checking my I-Phone at the same time, I'm doing neither. This is why our society is frazzled; this misconception that we can consciously do more than one thing at a time effectively.

I'm not the kind of person who can do a lot of things at the same time.

I never think at all when I write. Nobody can do two things at the same time and do them both well.

It takes a little bit of mindfulness and a little bit of attention to others to be a good listener, which helps cultivate emotional nurturing and engagement.

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

Is it not important to find out how to listen not only to what is being said but to everything - to the noise in the streets, to the chatter of birds, to the noise of the tramcar, to the restless sea, to the voice of your husband, to your wife, to your friends, to the cry of a baby?

Keeping one's eyes open, listening, watching, being quiet, adopting some of the techniques of the psychoanalyst in talking to people, will bring you that surface from which something more comes.

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

Sincere thought means thought of concentration (quiet awareness). The thought of a distracted mind cannot be sincere

It's amazing how much information is coming at us most of the time through technology, the media and the busyness of the world around us. I've decided that the world probably isn't going to change, so I have to change. I'm learning how to keep my mind on what I'm doing, rather than thinking about several things at once or what I want to do next.

But it is impossible to enjoy a tennis game, a book, or a conversation unless attention is fully concentrated on the activity.

To effectively communicate, we must realize that we are all different in the way we perceive the world and use this understanding as a guide to our communication with others.

You can't evoke great spirits and eat plums at the same time.

Studying design has made me a much, much more astute observer of this aspect of business. And I'm working mightily to improve my empathic skills. I've dramatically improved my ability to read facial expressions - and I'm trying to be a better, more attentive listener.

No one would choose to be jerked randomly off task again and again until you have half a dozen things you're trying to get done, all at the same time.

I'm on Twitter a lot of the day because I really like Twitter. It's great for jokes. But when I'm writing, I can't do anything else. I can't even listen to music. I just have to write, and then I can do something else. I can't multitask.

The most important thing to do is really listen.

So when you are listening to somebody, completely, attentively, then you are listening not only to the words, but also to the feeling of what is being conveyed, to the whole of it, not part of it.

You can't work on 15 problems at the same time.

Silence is one of the great arts of conversation.

How can you think and hit at the same time?

When I sit and talk with a person, I'm not always paying attention. I'm looking at the person and saying, 'What is it about his or her life that appeals to me?'