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

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

It is greed to do all the talking but not to want to listen at all.

It is greed to do all the talking but not to want to listen at all.

I have learned as much about writing about my people by listening to blues and jazz and spirituals as I read more

I have learned as much about writing about my people by listening to blues and jazz and spirituals as I have by reading novels.

The greatest compliment that was ever paid me was when one asked me what I thought, and attended to my read more

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

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.

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.

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

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

But yet she listen'd--'tis enough--
Who listens once will listen twice;
Her heart, be sure, is not read more

But yet she listen'd--'tis enough--
Who listens once will listen twice;
Her heart, be sure, is not of ice,
And one refusal no rebuff.

Accustomed to the veneer of noise, to the shibboleths of promotion, public relations, and market research, society is suspicious of read more

Accustomed to the veneer of noise, to the shibboleths of promotion, public relations, and market research, society is suspicious of those who value silence. Every person in this life has something to teach me - and as soon as I accept that, I open myself to truly listening. -John Lahr.