The first duty of love is to listen. -Paul Tillich.

The first duty of love is to listen. -Paul Tillich.

Wisdom is the reward for a lifetime of listening ... when you'd have preferred to talk. -D.J. Kaufman.

Wisdom is the reward for a lifetime of listening ... when you'd have preferred to talk. -D.J. Kaufman.

Listen. Don't explain or justify.

Listen. Don't explain or justify.

The wise old owl lived in an oak; The more he saw the less he spoke; The less he spoke read more

The wise old owl lived in an oak; The more he saw the less he spoke; The less he spoke the more he heard: Why can't we all be like that bird? -Edward H. Richards.

Listening is a magnetic and strange thing, a creative force. The friends who listen to us are the ones we read more

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.

Much silence makes a powerful noise. -African proverb.

Much silence makes a powerful noise. -African proverb.

The first duty of love is to listen.

The first duty of love is to listen.

An essential part of true listening is the discipline of bracketing, the temporary giving up or setting aside of one's read more

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.

The opposite of talking is not listening. The opposite of talking is waiting. -Fran Lebowitz.

The opposite of talking is not listening. The opposite of talking is waiting. -Fran Lebowitz.