Effective Listening Quotes

• I like to listen. I have learned a great deal from listening carefully. Most people never listen.

  Ernest Hemingway

  Inspirational, Relationship, Peace

  215 Copy quote

• Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.

  Winston Churchill

  Inspirational, Motivational, Strength

  451 Copy quote

• Wisdom is the reward you get for a lifetime of listening when you'd have preferred to talk.

  Doug Larson

  Inspirational, Wise, Wisdom

  251 Copy quote

• Most people do not listen with the intent to understand; they listen with the intent to reply.

  Stephen Covey

  Inspirational, Life, Wise

  Stephen R. Covey (2016). “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change Interactive Edition”, p.298, Mango Media Inc.

  79 Copy quote

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• The first duty of love is to listen.

  Paul Tillich

  Love, Life, Marriage

  142 Copy quote
• 

  The ear of the leader must ring with the voices of the people.

  Woodrow Wilson

  Leadership, Patriotic, Voice

  Woodrow Wilson (1965). “The Political Thought of Woodrow Wilson”

  136 Copy quote

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• Knowledge speaks, but wisdom listens.

  Jimi Hendrix

  Life, Music, Beautiful

  47 Copy quote

• One of the most sincere forms of respect is actually listening to what another has to say.

  Bryant H. McGill

  Inspirational, Respect, Listening To Others

  134 Copy quote

• The word 'listen' contains the same letters as the word 'silent.'

  Alfred Brendel

  I Hate You, Listening Ear, Christian Inspirational

  33 Copy quote

• 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

  Good Morning, Good Day, Morning Inspirational

  54 Copy quote

• The greatest compliment that was ever paid me was when one asked me what I thought, and attended to my answer.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Funny, Humor, Empathy

  Henry David Thoreau, Nancy L. Rosenblum (1996). “Thoreau: Political Writings”, p.103, Cambridge University Press

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• Effective listening is more than simply avoiding the bad habit of interrupting others while they are speaking or finishing their sentences. It's being content to listen to the entire thought of someone rather than waiting impatiently for your chance to respond.

  Richard Carlson

  Motivational, Waiting, Finishing

  Richard Carlson (1998). “Don't Sweat the Small Stuff, and It's All Small Stuff: Simple Ways to Keep the Little Things from Taking Over Your Life”, MacMillan Publishing Company

  29 Copy quote

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• Listening is a positive act: you have to put yourself out to do it.

  David Hockney

  Listening

  56 Copy quote

• Most of the successful people I've known are the ones who do more listening than talking.

  Bernard Baruch

  Inspirational, Success, Talking

  33 Copy quote

• Any problem, big or small, within a family, always seems to start with bad communication. Someone isn't listening.

  Emma Thompson

  Family, Communication, Big Families

  22 Copy quote

• The art of effective listening is essential to clear communication, and clear communication is necessary to management success.

  James Cash Penney

  Art, Communication, Essentials

  27 Copy quote

• Man's inability to communicate is a result of his failure to listen effectively.

  Carl Rogers

  Men, Empathy, Inability

  92 Copy quote

• 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

  Real, Communication, People

  Lee Iacocca, William Novak (2011). “Iacocca: An Autobiography”, p.58, Bantam

  27 Copy quote

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• It is the province of knowledge to speak, and it is the privilege of wisdom to listen.

  Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.

  Life, Positive, Wisdom

  'The Poet at the Breakfast Table' (1872) ch. 10

  63 Copy quote

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• To listen well is as powerful a means of communication and influence as to talk well

  John Marshall

  Powerful, Communication, Mean

  60 Copy quote

• Effective listening is a professional achievement-achieved only through hard work.

  Tom Peters

  Hard Work, Achievement, Listening

  4 Copy quote

• A good listener is not only popular everywhere, but after a while, he knows something.

  Wilson Mizner

  Relationship, Positive, Success

  Quoted in Evan Esar, The Dictionary of Humorous Quotations (1949)

  78 Copy quote

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• Too often we underestimate the power of a touch.

  Leo Buscaglia

  Smile, Appreciation, Kindness

  "Love". Book by Leo Buscaglia, 1972.

  90 Copy quote

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• Our best ideas come from clerks and stockboys.

  Sam Walton

  Ideas, Innovation, Clerks

  23 Copy quote

• 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

  Listening To Others, Leader, Culture

  Max De Pree (1987). “Leadership is an Art”, Doubleday Business

  8 Copy quote

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