Inspirational listening quotes will encourage growth in life, make you wiser and broaden your perspective.
Powerful Collection of Most Famous Listening Quotes
Wisdom is the reward you get for a lifetime of listening when you’d have preferred to talk. – Doug Larson
The word LISTEN contains the same letters as the word SILENT. – Alfred Brendel
No one is as deaf as the man who will not listen. – Proverb
When people talk, listen completely. Most people never listen. – Ernest Hemingway
The ear of the leader must ring with the voices of the people. – Woodrow Wilson
Many a man would rather you heard his story than granted his request. – Phillip Stanhope
To say that a person feels listened to means a lot more than just their ideas get heard. It’s a sign of respect. It makes people feel valued. – Deborah Tannen
If speaking is silver, then listening is gold. – Turkish Proverb
Be careful how you are talking to yourself because you are listening. – Lisa M. Hayes
Most people do not listen with the intent to understand; they listen with the intent to reply. – Stephen R. Covey
One of the most sincere forms of respect is actually listening to what another has to say. – Bryant H. McGill
Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen. – Winston Churchill
Silence is a source of great strength. – Lao Tzu
The most basic of all human needs is the need to understand and be understood. The best way to understand people is to listen to them. – Ralph Nichols
It’s a rare person who wants to hear what he doesn’t want to hear. – Dick Cavett
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. – Lee Iacocca
Listening is an art that requires attention over talent, spirit over ego, others over self. – Dean Jackson
Wisdom is the reward you get for a lifetime of listening when you’d have preferred to talk. – Doug Larson
One of the most sincere forms of respect is actually listening to what another has to say. – Bryant H. McGill
If you make listening and observation your occupation, you will gain much more than you can by talk. – Robert Baden-Powell
Listening is an attitude of the heart, a genuine desire to be with another which both attracts and heals. – L. J. Isham
Most of the successful people I’ve known are the ones who do more listening than talking. – Bernard Baruch
The most important thing in communication is hearing what isn’t said. – Peter Drucker
The word ‘listen’ contains the same letters as the word ‘silent’. – Alfred Brendel
The first duty of love is to listen. – Paul Tillich
Listening is often the only thing needed to help someone. – Anonymous
If you make listening and observation your occupation, you will gain much more than you can by talk. – Robert Baden-Powell
Sometimes the most influential thing we can do is listen. – Bob Burg
The first duty of love is to listen. – Paul Tillich
There is a voice that doesn’t use words. Listen. – Rumi
Wisdom is the reward you get for a lifetime of listening when you’d have preferred to talk. – Doug Larson
When you talk, you are only repeating what you already know. But if you listen, you may learn something new. – Dalai Lama
The word listen contains the same letters as the word silent. – Alfred Brendel
Never miss a good chance to shut up. – Will Rogers
The ear of the leader must ring with the voices of the people. – Woodrow Wilson
Of all the skills of leadership, listening is the most valuable – and one of the least understood. Most captains of industry listen only sometimes, and they remain ordinary leaders. But a few, the great ones, never stop listening. That’s how they get word before anyone else of unseen problems and opportunities. – Peter Nulty
Listening is about being present, not just about being quiet. – Krista Tippett
Listening to others viewpoints may reveal the one thing needed to complete your goals. – D. Ridgley
The most basic of all human needs is to understand and be understood. The best way to understand people is to listen to them. – Ralph Nichols
Learn to listen. Opportunity sometimes knocks very softly. – Anonymous
Listening is not merely not talking, though even that is beyond most of our powers; it means taking a vigorous, human interest in what is being told us. – Alice Deur Miller
When you listen, it’s amazing what you can learn. When you act on what you’ve learned, it’s amazing what you can change. – Audrey Mclaughlin
People start to heal the moment they feel heard. – Cheryl Richardson
Be a good listener. Your ears will never get you in trouble. – Frank Tyger
Being heard is so close to being loved that for the average person they are almost indistinguishable. – David Augsburger
When you talk, you repeat what you already know; when you listen, you often learn something. – Jared Sparks
You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view. – Harper Lee
Knowledge speaks, but wisdom listens. – Jimi Hendrix
It takes a great man to be a good listener. – Calvin Coolidge
I remind myself every morning: Nothing I say this day will teach me anything. So if I’m going to learn, I must do it by listening. – Larry King
Listening is being able to be changed by the other person. – Alan Alda
Whoever answers before listening is both foolish and shameful. – Proverbs
One of the greatest skills any leader can master is becoming comfortable with silence. – David Grossman
The art of conversation lies in listening. – Malcom Forbes
There is only one rule for being a good talker – learn to listen. – Anonymous
When people talk, listen completely. Most people never listen. – Ernest Hemingway
To listen well is as powerful a means of communication and influence as to talk well. – John Marshall
Listening is a magnetic and strange thing, a creative force. The friends who listen to us are the ones we move toward. When we are listened to, it creates us, makes us unfold and expand. – Karl Menninger
You cannot truly listen to anyone and do anything else at the same time. – M. Scott Peck
I know that you believe you understand what you think I said, but I’m not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant. – Robert Mccloskey
To listen well, is as powerful a means of influence as to talk well, and is as essential to all true conversation – Chinese Proverbs
Just the act of listening means more than you can imagine. – Bob Nelson
Wisdom is the reward you get for a lifetime of listening when you would have rather talked. – Mark Twain
Many a man would rather you heard his story than granted his request. – Phillip Stanhope
To learn through listening, practice it naively and actively. Naively means that you listen openly, ready to learn something, as opposed to listening defensively, ready to rebut. Listening actively means you acknowledge what you heard and act accordingly. – Betsy Sanders
You cannot truly listen to anyone and do anything else at the same time. – M. Scott Peck
Everything has been said before, but since nobody listens we have to keep going back and beginning all over again. – Andre Gide
A good listener tries to understand what the other person is saying. In the end he may disagree sharply, but because he disagrees, he wants to know exactly what it is he is disagreeing with. – Kenneth A. Wells
Deep listening is miraculous for both listener and speaker. When someone receives us with open-hearted, non-judging, intensely interested listening, our spirits expand. – Sue Patton Thoele
A good listener is not only popular everywhere, but after a while he knows something. – Wilson Mizner
A person hears only what they understand. – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Listen like every sentence matters; talk like every word counts. – Geoffrey Tumlin
One friend, one person who is truly understanding, who takes the trouble to listen to us as we consider a problem, can change our whole outlook on the world. – E. H. Mayo
Deep listening is the kind of listening that can help relieve the suffering of another person. You can call it compassionate listening. You listen with only one purpose: to help him or her to empty his heart. – Tich Nhat Hanh
The quieter you become, the more you can hear. – Anonymous
Every person I work with knows something better than me. My job is to listen long enough to find it and use it. – Jack Nichols
Give every man your ear, but few thy voice. Take each man’s censure, but reserve thy judgment. – William Shakespeare
God gave us two ears and one mouth, so we can hear twice as much as we say. – Unknown
Much silence makes a powerful noise. – African Proverb
Man who know little say much. Man who know much say little. – Unknown
I listened more than I studied, therefore little by little my knowledge and ability were developed. – Joseph Haydn
The worst of all listeners is the man who does nothing but listens. – Charles Dickens
Listen to your elder’s advice. Not because they are always right, but because they have more experience of being wrong. – Anonymous
Listening is a magnetic and strange thing, a creative force. The friends who listen to us are the ones we move toward. When we are listened to, it creates us, makes us unfold and expand. – Karl A. Menniger
You have to be willing sometimes to listen to some remarkable bad opinions. Because if you say to someone, ‘That’s the silliest thing I’ve ever heard; get on out of here!’ – then you’ll never get anything out of that person again, and you might as well have a puppet on a string or a robot. – John Bryan
God speaks to us every day only we don’t know how to listen. – Mahatma Gandhi
Big egos have little ears. – Robert Schuller
Many attempts to communicate are nullified by saying too much. – Robert Greenleaf
Listening is an attitude of the heart, a genuine desire to be with another which both attracts and heals. – J. Isham
There is no such thing as a worthless conversation, provided you know what to listen for. And questions are the breath of life for a conversation. – James Nathan Miller
A wise old owl sat on an oak; The more he saw the less he spoke; The less he spoke the more he heard; Why aren’t we like that wise old bird? – Chinese Proverbs
A leader must be a good listener. He must be willing to take counsel. He must show a genuine concern and love for those under his stewardship. – James Faust
The single most important key to success is to be a good listener. – Kelly Wearstler
Most of the successful people I’ve known are the ones who do more listening than talking. – Bernard Baruch
You cannot truly listen to anyone and do anything else at the same time. – M. Scott Peck
In some South Pacific cultures, a speaker holds a conch shell as a symbol of temporary position of authority. Leaders must understand who holds the conch-that is, who should be listened to and when. – Max De Pree
Be a good listener. Your ears will never get you in trouble. – Frank Tyger
There is a difference between truly listening and waiting for your turn to talk. – Ralph Waldo Emerson
Listening to both sides does not necessarily bring about a correct judgment. – Donald Rumsfeld
And he goes through life, his mouth open, and his mind closed. – William Shakespeare
The greatest gift you can give another is the purity of your attention. – Richard Moss
The greatest compliment that was ever paid me was when one asked me what I thought, and attended to my answer. – Henry David Thoreau
There are people who, instead of listening to what is being said to them, are already listening to what they are going to say themselves. – Albert Guinon
Know how to listen, and you will profit even from those who talk badly. – Plutarch
Most of the successful people I’ve known are the ones who do more listening that talking. – Bernard Baruch
Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or self-confidence. – Robert Frost
Let a fool hold his tongue and he will pass for a sage. -Publilius Syrus Listening is being able to be changed by the other person. – Alan Alda
Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen. – Winston Churchill
Listening is one of the loudest forms of kindness. – Anonymous
He who is wise listens. – Anonymous
You learn when you listen. You earn when you listen – not just money but respect. – Harvey Mackay
The earth has music for those who listen. – William Shakespeare
God gave us mouths that close and ears that don’t, that must tell us something. – Anonymous
Everything in writing begins with language. Language begins with listening. – Jeanette Winterson
You have to be willing sometimes to listen to some remarkable bad opinions. Because if you say to someone, ‘That’s the silliest thing I’ve ever heard; get on out of here!’-then you’ll never get anything out of that person again, and you might as well have a puppet on a string or a robot. – John Bryan
We have two ears and one mouth, so we should listen more than we say. – Zeno of Citium
It is the province of knowledge to speak and it is the privilege of wisdom to listen. – Oliver Wendell Holmes
No man ever listened himself out of a job. – Calvin Coolidge
My parents taught me how to listen to everybody before I made up my own mind. 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. – Steven Spielberg
No one is as deaf as the man who will not listen. – Yiddish Proverb
The most important thing in communication is to hear what isn’t being said. – Peter Drucker
Only if we can restrain ourselves is good conversation possible. Good talk rises upon much discipline. – John Erskine
One of the most valuable things we can do to heal one another is listen to each other’s stories. – Rebecca Falls
One of the most valuable things we can do to heal one another is listen to each other’s stories. – Roger G. Imhoff
Everyone you will ever meet knows something you don’t. – Bill Nye
Speak in such a way that others love to listen to you. Listen in such a way that others love to speak to you. – Anonymous
A good listener is not only popular everywhere, but after a while he knows something. – Wilson Mizner
Effective questioning brings insight, which fuels curiosity, which cultivates wisdom. – Chip Bell
Silence is a source of great strength. – Lao Tzu
There is as much wisdom in listening as there is in speaking–and that goes for all relationships, not just romantic ones. – Daniel Dae Kim
When you talk, you are only repeating what you already know. But if you listen, you may learn something new. – Dalai Lama
Good listeners, like precious gems, are to be treasured. – Walter Anderson
The art of conversation lies in listening. – Malcolm Forbes
Listen thrice. Think twice. Speak once. – Anonymous
Listening is a magnetic force. – Karl A. Menninger
You can’t fake listening. It shows. – Raquel Welch
The most important thing in communication is hearing what isn’t said. – Peter Drucker
Listening, not imitation, may be the sincerest form of flattery. – Dr. Joyce Brothers
The most important thing in communication is hearing what isn’t said – Peter Drucker
We should never pretend to know what we don’t know, we should not feel ashamed to ask and learn from people below, and we should listen carefully to the views of the cadres at the lowest levels. Be a pupil before you become a teacher; learn from the cadres at the lower levels before you issue orders. – Mao Tse-tung
The most basic of all human needs is the need to understand and be understood. The best way to understand people is to listen to them. – Ralph Nichols
You have two ears and one mouth and you should use them in those proportions. – Chinese Proverb
True wisdom listens more, talks less, and can get along with all types of people. – Kiana Tom
Effective listeners remember that words have no meaning – people have meaning. The assignment of meaning to a term is an internal process; meaning comes from inside us. And although our experiences, knowledge and attitudes differ, we often misinterpret each other’s messages while under the illusion that a common understanding has been achieved. – Larry Barker
Friends are those rare people who ask how we are, and then wait to hear the answer. – Ed Cunningham
Bore, n.: A person who talks when you wish him to listen. – Ambrose Bierce
An actor’s a guy who if you ain’t talkin’ about him, ain’t listening. – Marlon Brando
It’s a rare person who wants to hear what he doesn’t want to hear. – Dick Cavett
I’ll defend to the death your right to say that, but I never said I’d listen to it! – Tom Galloway
The art of conversation lies in listening. – Malcom Forbes
We have two ears and one tongue so that we would listen more and talk less. – Diogenes
The right to be heard does not automatically include the right to be taken seriously. – Hubert Humphrey
One advantage of talking to yourself is that you know at least somebody’s listening. – Franklin P. Jones
Just because I didn’t do what you told me, doesn’t mean I wasn’t listening to you! – Hank Ketcham
One friend, one person who is truly understanding, who takes the trouble to listen to us as we consider a problem, can change our whole outlook on the world. – Dr. E. H. Mayo
There is no such thing as a worthless conversation, provided you know what to listen for. And questions are the breath of life for a conversation. – James Nathan Miller
It is the province of knowledge to speak. And it is the privilege of wisdom to listen. – Oliver Wendell Holmes
There’s a big difference between showing interest and really taking interest. – Michael P. Nichols
Listening looks easy, but it’s not simple. Every head is a world. – Cuban Proverb
Man’s inability to communicate is a result of his failure to listen effectively. – Carl Rogers
If speaking is silver, then listening is gold. – Turkish Proverb
To listen fully means to pay close attention to what is being said beneath the words. You listen not only to the ‘music,’ but to the essence of the person speaking. You listen not only for what someone knows, but for what he or she is. Ears operate at the speed of sound, which is far slower than the speed of light the eyes take in. Generative listening is the art of developing deeper silences in yourself, so you can slow our mind’s hearing to your ears’ natural speed, and hear beneath the words to their meaning. – Peter Senge
Big egos have little ears. – Robert Schuller
It is the province of knowledge to speak And it is the privilege of wisdom to listen. – Oliver Wendell Holmes
The greatest compliment that was ever paid me was when one asked me what I thought, and attended to my answer. – Henry David Thoreau
Many attempts to communicate are nullified by saying too much. – Robert Greenleaf
To be listened to is, generally speaking, a nearly unique experience for most people. It is enormously stimulating. It is small wonder that people who have been demanding all their lives to be heard so often fall speechless when confronted with one who gravely agrees to lend an ear. Man clamors for the freedom to express himself and for knowing that he counts. But once offered these conditions, he becomes frightened. – Robert C. Murphy
A good listener is not only popular everywhere, but after a while he gets to know something. – Wilson Mizner
Listening, not imitation, may be the sincerest form of flattery. – Dr Joyce Brothers
Wisdom is the reward for a lifetime of listening … when you’d have preferred to talk. – D.J. Kaufman
The best time to hold your tongue is the time you feel you must say something or bust. – Josh Billings
An essential part of true listening is the discipline of bracketing, the temporary giving up or setting aside of one’s own prejudices, frames of reference and desires so as to experience as far as possible the speaker’s world from the inside, step in inside his or her shoes. This unification of speaker and listener is actually and extension and enlargement of ourselves, and new knowledge is always gained from this. Moreover, since true listening involves bracketing, a setting aside of the self, it also temporarily involves a total acceptance of the other. Sensing this acceptance, the speaker will fell less and less vulnerable and more and more inclined to open up the inner recesses of his or her mind to the listener. As this happens, speaker and listener begin to appreciate each other more and more, and the duet dance of love is begun again. – M. Scott Peck
Listening is a magnetic and strange thing, a creative force. The friends who listen to us are the ones we move toward. When we are listened to, it creates us, makes us unfold and expand. – Karl Menninger
There are people who, instead of listening to what is being said to them, are already listening to what they are going to say themselves. – Albert Guinon
No man ever listened himself out of a job. – Calvin Coolidge
To listen closely and reply well is the highest perfection we are able to attain in the art of conversation. – Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Be a good listener. Your ears will never get you in trouble. – Frank Tyger
I think the one lesson I have learned is that there is no substitute for paying attention. – Diane Sawyer
Seek first to understand, then to be understood. – Stephen R. Covey
June Rokoff, Senior VP for Software Development at Lotus credits her success in turning around the company’s position in the software industry to building a team that listens: she made listening the culture of her team. – Glen Rifkin
The best salespeople are great listeners-that’s how you find out what the buyer wants. – Larry Wilson and Spencer Johnson
Just being available and attentive is a great way to use listening as a management tool. Some employees will come in, talk for twenty minutes, and leave having solved their problems entirely by themselves. – Nicholas V. Luppa
I would say that listening to the other person’s emotions may be the most important thing I’ve learned in twenty years of business. – Heath Herber
Of all the skills of leadership, listening is the most valuable-and one of the least understood. Most captains of industry listen only sometimes, and they remain ordinary leaders. But a few, the great ones, never stop listening. That’s how they get word before anyone else of unseen problems and opportunities. – Peter Nulty
Without credible communication, and a lot of it, the hearts and minds of others are never captured. – John P. Kotter
A good listener tries to understand what the other person is saying. In the end he may disagree sharply, but because he disagrees, he wants to know exactly what it is he is disagreeing with. – Kenneth A. Wells
We listened to what our customers wanted and acted on what they said. Good things happen when you pay attention. – John F Smith
Defense mechanisms are always anti-learning. – Chris Argyris
The saddest part about being human is not paying attention. Presence is the gift of life. – Stephen Levine
The way to stay fresh is you never stop traveling, you never stop listening. You never stop asking people what they think. – Rene McPherson
A good listener is not only popular everywhere, but after a while he knows something. – Wilson Mizner
Who speaks, sows; Who listens, reaps. – Argentine Proverb
We do not grow by knowing all of the answers, but rather by living with the questions. – Max De Pree
We should never pretend to know what we don’t know, we should not feel ashamed to ask and learn from people below, and we should listen carefully to the views of the cadres at the lowest levels. Be a pupil before you become a teacher; learn from the cadres at the lower levels before you issue orders. – MaoTse-tung
You learn when you listen. You earn when you listen-not just money, but respect. – Harvey Mackay
The key to success is to get out into the store and listen to what the associates have to say. It’s terribly important for everyone to get involved. Our best ideas come from clerks and stockboys. – Sam Walton
Many ‘active listening’ seminars are, in actuality, little more than a shallow theatrical exercise in appearing like you’re paying attention to another person. The requirements: Lean forward, make eye contact, nod, grunt, or murmur to demonstrate you’re awake and paying attention, and paraphrase something back every 30 seconds or so. As one executive I know wryly observed, many inhabitants of the local zoo could be trained to go through these motions, minus the paraphrasing. – Robert K. Cooper
