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Listening Quotes

43 Total

Note: Click on any quote to see the quote on its own page.

A LISTENING Chart: When listening to presentations of others, use a fill-in chart that tracks the following: Introduction: How did the speaker attract attention? Quotes/Anecdotes/Analogies: Note and keep as appropriate Resources: for additional information Closing: How “clean” was the wrap-up? Things to Avoid (Unless you have a job as a critic): How could the presentation have been improved?

ACTIVE LISTENING: 1. Seek to understand first and to be understood second 2. Match tempo and tone 3. Listen TO, not against. Evaluate, not value judge. 4. Watch for: What is NOT said 5. Read facial and body language 6. Restate in your own words (It is NOT required that the listener AGREE with the other person)

Try this test of how well people listen: Ask someone: How do you pronounce J-O-K-E? “Joke” How do you pronounce P-O-K-E? “Poke” How do you pronounce B-L-O-K-E? “Bloke” How do you pronounce S-M-O-K-E? “Smoke” How do you pronounce the white of an egg? “Yolk” Are you sure??

There is a story in Arabic which tells of a pupil asking a wise man how he could become a good conversationalist. The sage replied, “Listen, my son.” After waiting a while, pupil said, “I am listening, Please continue your instruction.” The sage smiled. “There is no more to tell.”

The EAR model is a useful tool for effective listening: E – EXPLORE using open-ended questions such as “What” and “How”, OBSERVE non-verbals A – ACKNOWLEDGE by paraphrasing what you think the message was R – RESPOND

Listening is like photography: AIM, FRAME and FOCUS AIM: for the speaker, don?? be distracted FRAME: concentrate on the framework of the speaker FOCUS: on what is said

Channing Cox, who succeeded Calvin Coolidge as governor of Massachusetts, visited the vice-president. Cox asked him how he could see his visitors every day and manage to leave his office at five, while Cox could rarely leave before nine P.M. Coolidge replied, “You talk back.”

You never really learn much from hearing yourself talk.

– George Clooney

You have two ears and one mouth and you should use them in that proportion – listen twice as much as you talk.

You can judge a good listener by asking the talker at the end of the conversation what the listener’s position is on the topic. If the talker doesn’t know, then the listener has probably done a good job of listening.

You ain’t learnin’ nothing when you’re talking.

– Plaque on Lyndon Johnston’s Senate office wall

Women like silent men. They think they’re listening.

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

– Doug Larson

When listening, people spend most of their time responding. To be an effective communicator, spend more time exploring, observing and acknowledging.

What people talk about means something. What people don’t talk about means something.

– William Saroyan

We were taught to sit still and enjoy the silence. To use our organs of smell, to look when there was apparently nothing to see, and to listen intently when all seemingly was quiet.

– Luther Standing Bear

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

– Chief Justice John Marshall

To find out what others are feeling, don’t “prod” or “poke”. If you want play with a turtle, you can’t get it to come out of its shell by prodding and poking it with a stick, you might kill it. Be gentle not harsh, hard or forceful.

The spoken word belongs half to him who speaks, and half to him who listens.

– French Proverb

The only time some people really listen is when they are the ones asking the questions.

– Angela Bright

The less you talk, the more you’re listened to.

– Abigail Van Buren

Sometimes we listen to people so that they can hear what they are saying.

Several studies have shown that people who speak the least in a sales or social settings are perceived to be friendlier, smarter, and better looking than people who speak the most.

Real listening is a willingness to let the other person change you.

People should talk less and draw more. Personally, I would like to renounce speech altogether and, like organic nature, communicate everything I have to say visually.

– Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

One of the best ways to persuade others is with your ears – by listening to them.

One of the hardest things to do in life is to listen without intent to reply.

Once you get people laughing, they’re listening and you can tell them almost anything.

– Herb Gardner

Many a man would rather you heard his story than granted his request.

It takes a rare person to want to hear what he doesn’t want to hear.

– Dick Cavett