To Listen Quotes

#1. From Ernest Hemingway's stories, I learned to listen within my stories for what went unsaid by my characters.

Nadine Gordimer

#2. I write about what I know: sex, pornography, art, fame obsession, drugs, and alcohol. I mean, why would anyone care to listen to me if I wasn't an expert in what I write about?

Lady Gaga

#3. For men to be tied and led by authority, as it were with a kind of captivity of judgment, and though there be reason to the contrary not to listen unto it, but to follow like beasts the first in the herd, they know not, nor care not whither, this were brutish.

Richard Hooker

#4. In free countries, every man is entitled to express his opinions and every other man is entitled not to listen.

J. Norman Collie

#5. I believe music should reflect yourself in some way and not just yourself at the given time. I feel that when you die or when you're going, someone's supposed to listen to that music and know everything about you. And I just try to get that across.

Lil' Wayne

#6. I'm not a clever man, but I'm willing to listen to people who are, and I think you are. Just don't try poking me in the direction you want me to go. I don't like that Master Balwer.

Robert Jordan

#7. My mother Elizabeth Ivey Brubeck was a pianist who studied with Dame Myra Hess and Tobias Matthey. As a child in California I used to listen to her play Chopin.

Dave Brubeck

#8. If you really believe in the message you're preaching, you want as many people as possible to listen.

Mark Batterson

#9. One of my philosophies as a director is to listen to other people's great ideas because they'll help make you better.

Jonathan Frakes

#10. There is no better friendship booster than the ability to listen. The ability to show genuine interest in others is an admirable quality of a true friend.

Phil Callaway

#11. I think my body knew before my mind did. Or maybe I just refused to listen to what I knew.

Jackie French

#12. The semi-colon is a burp, a hiccup. It's a drunk staggering out of the saloon at 2 a.m., grabbing your lapels on the way and asking you to listen to one more story.

James Scott Bell

#13. You have to listen to what resonates within your own gut. You find your direction there. Your voice comes out.

Kathy Mattea

#14. People are more likely to listen to sermons you preach if they are also sermons you practice.

Orrin Woodward

#15. what makes you a leader is the will to lead, not the knowledge how to do it best. You just have to be bright enough to listen to those who do know, and make the decisions that they don't want to be responsible for. That's how a team works.

Adrienne Lecter

#16. There is no such thing as realistic dialogue. If you [simply recorded] the real conversation of any people and played it back from the stage, it would be impossible to listen to. It would be redundant ... The good dialogue writer is the one who can give you the impression of real speech.

Joseph L. Mankiewicz

#17. Dor remembered Victor's voice.
And while they deepen with age, voices
are, to one destined to listen for eternity,
as distinct as a fingerprint. Dor knew it
was him the moment Victor spoke in the
shop.

Mitch Albom

#18. In order to understand God, you have to learn to listen. You're thoughts talk very loudly all the time. But God is very, very, very quiet. God doesn't speak through words or thoughts. God doesn't speak. God is silent.

Frederick Lenz

#19. Being able to listen to unrepeatable secrets, wishes, and desires wasn't as wonderful as it seemed ... being aware of what other people felt at every moment would come to cause him a lot of headaches, and huge disappointments in love.

Laura Esquivel

#20. Clark Terry is an American Master. I love to listen to him, particularly 'Mumbles.' I was so delighted when we received degrees together, along with Edward Kennedy, at the New England Conservatory in 1997.

Aretha Franklin

#21. The number one way a man can succeed in fulfilling a woman's primary love needs is through communication. By learning to listen to a woman's feelings, a man can effectively shower a woman with caring, understanding, respect, devotion, validation, and reassurance ...

John Gray

#22. Gynaecologists are very smooth indeed. Because they have to listen to woeful and sordid symptoms they develop an expression of refinement and sympathy.

Richard Asher

#23. The best way to understand another person's religion is to listen to the story of what particular practices helped them to deepen and to embody their religion, especially its spirituality.

Thomas Keating

#24. I suspect that we are all recipients of cosmic love notes. Messages, omens, voices, cries, revelations, and appeals are homogenized into each day's events. If only we knew how to listen, to read the signs.

Sam Keen

#25. I'm making music for other people to listen to for pleasure. And hopefully, later on maybe they'll listen to it and go, "That bass line, boy, did you hear the way those drums interacted with that?"

Lauryn Hill

#26. I don't think I'm unique or that I'm trying to do something unique, but I feel it is something I would like to hear. This kind of music I would like to listen to but I can't hear very often.

Rokia Traore

#27. If people are highly successful in their profession they lose their senses. Sight goes. They have no time to look at pictures. Sound goes. They have no time to listen to music. Speech goes. They have no time for conversation. They lose their sense of proportion.

Virginia Woolf

#28. The only way to fight nostalgia is to listen to somebody else's nostalgia

Pete Hamill

#29. The key is that Jesus does want to speak to us-to you-today. In your own language, just as a friend would speak. We simply need to take the time to listen.

Wally Armstrong

#30. As a parent, the goal is not to get to the other end. It's just simply to protect the children that you're responsible for - and protect their hearts - and, wherever they're headed, to get (them) there safely. That involves patience, time and willingness to listen.

Martha Williamson

#31. They seem not to listen to what I have to say, so I'm going to quit.

Richard Kerry

#32. Regular church-goers are substantially more likely than non-attenders to read, to take newspapers and magazines, to listen to classical music, to attend symphony concerts, operas, and stage plays.

Rodney Stark

#33. Once you start to listen to your voice, you start to feel the power in that.

Shiri Appleby

#34. When men are brought face to face with their opponents, forced to listen and learn and mend their ideas, they cease to be children and savages and begin to live like civilized men. Then only is freedom a reality, when men may voice their opinions because they must examine their opinions.

Walter Lippmann

#35. But you need to cultivate patience, youngling. And you need to listen to my words of wisdom, because as far as you are concerned, I am Obi-Wan fucking Kenobi. Okay?

Paul McAuley

#36. Most people don't know how to listen because the major part of their attention is taken up by thinking.

Eckhart Tolle

#37. I don't want children cursing. I'm very strict on my nieces and my little brother. They have to listen to clean versions of music. Even my music.

Nicki Minaj

#38. You know I used to listen to music a lot more.

Brett Favre

#39. But of course we do not like to listen to our mothers," said Mrs. Ali, smiling. "At least, not until long after we are mothers ourselves.

Helen Simonson

#40. Everyone likes to reminisce, but not one wants to listen, and everyone feels annoyed when someone else tells a story.

Liu Cixin

#41. Sometimes all you need is someone who is willing to listen to you without advising or judging you.

Adhish Mazumder

#42. I like listening to music on a Discman, where the CD spins, and the fact that it's weird to listen to something on a Discman when most people have an iPod, even though those have an internal hard drive that's spinning, too.

Alexis Taylor

#43. I think anything you listen to is going to be different. You're going to listen to a song differently if you're just sitting around somewhere listening on your phone as opposed to sitting in a dark room listening to a vinyl album. It's going to be a totally different experience.

Brendon Urie

#44. The best people to listen to are those who have already been successful accomplishing exactly what you are seeking to accomplish.

Brian Koslow

#45. I pay attention. Nothing more than that."
"You make it sound like it's no big deal to pay attention when the sad fact is, most people don't. It takes a lot of energy to listen.

Lauren Dane

#46. When humans team up with computers to play chess, the humans who do best are not necessarily the strongest players. They're the ones who are modest and who know when to listen to the computer. Often, what the human adds is knowledge of when the computer needs to look more deeply.

Tyler Cowen

#47. Confidence, as a teenager? Because I knew what I loved. I loved to read; I loved to listen to music; and I loved cats. Those three things. So, even though I was an only kid, I could be happy because I knew what I loved.

Haruki Murakami

#48. Refusal to listen isn't enough of a response.

Mhairi McFarlane

#49. We should never hesitate to listen to a fool about life because life is pretty foolish as far as I can tell.

P. J. O'Rourke

#50. When you raise a child on fear and hatred from the moment they are old enough to listen, it leaves a mark.

C.S. Arnot

#51. I am my own mentor. I like to listen to myself to improve.

Fetty Wap

#52. It's a lot to ask, but I need you to listen to a story that I've never told anyone,' Varg answered.
'Why would listening be a lot to ask?' Milea inquired.
Varg paused. 'Because the story I am about to tell you may make you see me as a monster.

Brittany Comeaux

#53. AWESOME TEACHERS recognize different abilities, take time to listen, go beyond the textbooks, and inspire from the heart!

Tanya Masse

#54. [Lynda's mother] You're stupid and you don't know it, that's you're problem. You talk, talk, talk, all the time. No one wants to listen to an idiot.

[Young Lynda] Uh. OK. Thanks, Mom.

Lynda Barry

#55. Intimacy comes from being yourself on the stage and making the audience feel, without trying, that you're sittin' down there with 'em, playing, and that can happen in a big hall, if you have a good audience that want to listen.

Doc Watson

#56. We can't expect a blind man to appreciate beautiful patterns or a deaf man to listen to bells and drums. And blindness and deafness are not confined to the body alone - the understanding has them, too.

Zhuangzi

#57. Everyone is trying to make these huge songs; I just make things that I want to listen to. Music that I will be comfortable listening to 10 years from now, that's my only thing.

Action Bronson

#58. The main thing is to be myself. What I mean by that is, to be honest when called upon to express your feelings. The other thing is - maybe this should come first - to be a good listener. To close your mouth and to listen, and to be able to echo back what your partner says to you.

Michael Franti

#59. True intimacy - sharing who you are, the very deepest part of you - with Him. God wants to listen to who you are.

Linda Boone

#60. The whole universe is eager to listen to you; just start the best melody of your precious life.

Debasish Mridha

#61. I guess something people wouldn't expect me to listen to are artists like Alicia Keys. But she is so incredibly talented. She has this huge voice and great work ethic, which I really respect in an artist. She is also very humble and gracious and devoted to her skill.

Zola Jesus

#62. Oftentimes it's easier for lunatics to attract impassioned followers than it is for sensible people to get people to listen to reason. People are often more willing to believe lies than the truth. Lies can be made to sound pleasant. The truth, by its very nature, isn't always so attractive.

Terry Goodkind

#63. I mean, what 16-year-old is going to listen to Doc Watson?

Brian Setzer

#64. A politician is required to listen to humbug, talk humbug, condone humbug. The most we can hope for is that we don't actually believe it.

P.D. James

#65. What people really want, no matter who they are, is someone to listen to them ... people have a lot on their minds, however trivial, and if you're simply willing to sit there like a sack of dirt and let them yammer, they will tell it to you.

Chip Kidd

#66. Many leaders don't listen, and it is one of the greatest methods we have of learning. You need to listen to those under your supervision and to those who are above you.

John Wooden

#67. You have a responsibility to listen to the dissent in yourself.

Joss Whedon

#68. A lot of my fans are people who have grown up and don't have as much time to listen to the radio, but still want to keep up with what's popular. A lot of shows don't talk to them anymore, but I do.

Casey Kasem

#69. He did not know that Levin was feeling as though he had grown wings. Levin knew she was listening to his words and that she was glad to listen to him. And this was the only thing that interested him.

Leo Tolstoy

#70. The musicians one day are going to listen to me.

Joss Stone

#71. Perhaps the habit which distinguishes civilized people from others is that of discussion, exchange of opinion and ideas, the ability to differ without quarrelling, to say what you have to say civilly and then to listen civilly to another speaker.

Katherine Anne Porter

#72. I am too weary to listen, too angry to hear.

Daniel Bell

#73. To listen to the silence is to hear the heartbeat of the Universe.

Laurence Overmire

#74. It's hard to learn to listen to your instincts. It's easier for some who have a natural ability to follow that little voice inside, but for others it takes practice.

Judith-Victoria Douglas

#75. The very shadows seem to listen.

Anna Katharine Green

#76. Compassion is born from understanding suffering. We all should learn to embrace our own suffering, to listen to it deeply, and to have a deep look into its nature.

Thich Nhat Hanh

#77. And at night I love to listen to the stars. It is like five hundred million little bells ...

Antoine De Saint-Exupery

#78. You know, to listen to Senator Lieberman, Senator Kerry, Representative Gephardt, I'm anti-Israel, I'm anti-trade, I'm anti-Medicare and I'm anti-Social Security. I wonder how I ended up in the Democratic Party. I'm not a new entrant to the Democratic Party. I've been here a long time.

Howard Dean

#79. Life is the music of your soul; all you need to do is to listen hard

Munia Khan

#80. The greatest reward for a student is not a good grade. It is the willingness of his teacher to listen to him.

Nikolay Konstantinov

#81. What I learned about stammering was that, when as a young child you lose the confidence of anyone who wants to listen to you, you lose confidence in your voice and the right to speech. And a lot of the therapy was saying, 'You have a right to be heard.'

Tom Hooper

#82. A fortress built long ago,
Walls made timeless by historic glory.
The small girl in the boat slows,
To listen to its story.

Rachel Lewis

#83. You have your vision and you need to be focused, but you have to listen. I never felt a sense that the wheels were going to come off because we're all friends and family. It was all good.

Patrick Wilson

#84. I am trying to make an emotional point. I don't expect you to understand me on that level - you are but a romantic sapling. I am a sequoia, so you'd be well advised to listen to what I have to say.

David Levithan

#85. Sometimes I imagine that there's a binary division going on in contemporary practice that has to do with chromatic versus diatonic. I notice that I tend to listen in a diatonic sense, that I register a pitch as a member of a diatonic scale, even in a non-tonal context.

Paul Lansky

#86. Water reveals the sounds of the Otherworlds, to those who know how to listen.

Jennifer McKeithen

#87. The many ways to listen have been reaching into me for years. To enter deep listening, I've had to learn how to keep emptying and opening, how to keep beginning. I've had to lean into all I don't understand, accepting that I am changed by what I hear.

Mark Nepo

#88. What needs to be counted on to have a voice? Courage. Anger. Love. Something to say; someone to speak to; someone to listen. I have talked to myself for years in the privacy of my journals.

Terry Tempest Williams

#89. We believe that if the Bible is God speaking, then the most important posture of the Christian before the Bible is to listen.

Tremper Longman III

#90. Robert De Niro taught me how to listen, and how to be part of the conversation. It's not just about reading your lines and saying what's in the script; you have to understand your character, along with the other characters so that you can always respond.

Cathy Moriarty

#91. There are people I'll always love to listen to, and I'm always ending up discovering new songs by them, which is crazy. Like Stevie Wonder.

Neil Armstrong

#92. It's impossible to be refined when we don't know how to listen.

Samael Aun Weor

#93. I always like balance. If I'm playing rock music all the time, chances are I'll start craving some lighter, poppier stuff, both to listen to and to play. I compare music to massage. If someone's been working on your back for a long time, you really want them to move down to your legs or something.

Rivers Cuomo

#94. ... frankly I'm not going to listen to someone hold forth on the Greatest Music of All Time if they start with the beatles. If they start with Mozart I'll have a little patience; because I know that Bach is better.

Nathan "N.R." Gaddis

#95. Hearts can be treacherous, but the best way to keep them from fooling you is to listen to them intently

Paulo Coelho

#96. Still, small heavenly voices penetrate the heart with their gentle, convincing declarations ... Most often, hope, encouragement, and direction come from a soft, piercing voice. Small voices are heard only by those who are willing to listen.

Marvin J. Ashton

#97. It's sometimes surprising how people can open up when you demonstrate a willingness to listen to their stories with attentiveness and respect.

Kevin Fedarko

#98. The American people are desperately seeking a Moses to lead them out of the wilderness, back to the land of milk and honey. They thought maybe Barack Obama was the one, and when he proved to be mortal after all, they were willing to listen to anyone new.

John Yarmuth

#99. The moral of the story is not to listen to those who tell you not to play the violin but stick to the tambourine.

Jose Mourinho

#100. Even monsters need peace. Even monsters need a person who truly wants to listen
to hear
so that someday we might find the words that are more than boxes. Then maybe we can stop men like me from happening.

Rene Denfeld