The first duty of love is to listen.

The first duty of love is to listen.

Listening is a magnetic and strange thing, a creative force...When we are listened to, it creates us, makes us unfold read more

Listening is a magnetic and strange thing, a creative force...When we are listened to, it creates us, makes us unfold and expand. Ideas actually begin to grow within us and come to life...When we listen to people there is an alternating current, and this recharges us so that we never get tired of each other...and it is this little creative fountain inside us that begins to spring and cast up new thoughts and unexpected laughter and wisdom. ...Well, it is when people really listen to us, with quiet facinated attention, that the little fountain begins to work again, to accelerate in the most surprising way. -Brenda Ueland.

Take care what you say before a wall, as you cannot tell who may be behind it.

Take care what you say before a wall, as you cannot tell who may be behind it.

Everything has been said before, but since nobody listens we have to keep going back and beginning all over again.

Everything has been said before, but since nobody listens we have to keep going back and beginning all over again.

I know that you believe you understand what you think I said, but I'm not sure you realize that what read more

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.

Listen, every one
That listen may, unto a tale
That's merrier than the nightingale.
read more

Listen, every one
That listen may, unto a tale
That's merrier than the nightingale.
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Tales of a Wayside Inn (pt. III,),

There is no such thing as a worthless conversation, provided you know what to listen for. And questions are the read more

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.

In listening mood she seemed to stand,
The guardian Naiad of the strand.

In listening mood she seemed to stand,
The guardian Naiad of the strand.

The ear is something we cannot close at will, and we are the poorer for it.

The ear is something we cannot close at will, and we are the poorer for it.