"When people talk, listen completely. Most people never listen."
— Ernest Hemingway

"If we were supposed to talk more than listen we would have been given two mouths and one ear."
— Mark Twain

"Part of doing something is listening. We are listening. To the sun. To the stars. To the wind."
— Madeleine L'Engle (A Swiftly Tilting Planet)

"It takes a great man to be a good listener."
— Calvin Coolidge

"There's a lot of difference between listening and hearing."
— G.K. Chesterton

"The humble listen to their brothers and sisters because they assume they have something to learn. They are open to correction, and they become wiser through it."
— Thomas Dubay

"When the work takes over, then the artist is enabled to get out of the way, not to interfere. When the work takes over, then the artist listens."
— Madeleine L'Engle (Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith and Art)

"I had trouble listening to adults who didn't really mean anything that they said; it was as if their language poured into my ears only to drain right out a little spigot in the back of my head."
— Reif Larsen (The Selected Works of T. S. Spivet)

"An appreciative listener is always stimulating."
— Agatha Christie (The Mysterious Affair at Styles)

"The most basic of all human needs is the need to understand and be understood. The best way to understand people is to listen to them."
— Ralph Nichols

"Listening is an attitude of the heart, a genuine desire to be with another which both attracts and heals. (attr to J. Isham)"
— Sura Hart (Respectful Parents, Respectful Kids: 7 Keys to Turn Family Conflict into Cooperation)

"Intermittently she caught the gist of his sentences and supplied the rest from her subconscious, as one picks up the striking of a clock in the middle with only the rhythm of the first uncounted strokes lingering in the mind."
— F. Scott Fitzgerald (Tender Is the Night)

"An argument in apologetics, when actually used in dialogue, is an extension of the arguer. The arguer's tone, sincerity, care, concern, listening, and respect matter as much as his or her logic - probably more. The world was won for Christ not by arguments but by sanctity: "What you are speaks so loud, I can hardly hear what you say.""
— Peter Kreeft (Pocket Handbook of Christian Apologetics)

"You may see all that is around you
But you may feel nothing at all.
So try and close your eyes so tight
And listen to the night time fall."
— Stephen Cosgrove (Kartusch: A Serendipity Book)

"I have squandered my resistance
For a pocketful of mumbles
Such are promises
All lies and jests
Still a man hears what he wants to hear
And disregards the rest.

(The Boxer)
"
— Paul Simon

"Everyone has the right to remain silent; everyone has the right to free speech.
But what good is it without the right to take turns? "
— LixLew

"It takes two to speak the truth - one to speak and another to hear."
— Henry David Thoreau

"I'll be damned if I am not getting tired of this. It seems to be the profession of a President simply to hear other people talk. "
— William Howard Taft