Hearing Quotes

“The exhilarating ripple of her voice was a wild tonic in the rain.”
― F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

“The art of conversation is the art of hearing as well as of being heard.”
― William Hazlitt, Selected Essays, 1778-1830

“Listen to the trees as they sway in the wind.

Their leaves are telling secrets. Their bark sings songs of olden days as it grows around the trunks. And their roots give names to all things.

Their language has been lost.

But not the gestures.”
― Vera Nazarian, The Perpetual Calendar of Inspiration

“If you look hard and long, you can find us. If you listen hard and long, you can hear any of us, call any of us that you wish.”
― Tamora Pierce, Wild Magic

“What is important is not what you hear said, it's what you observe.”
― Michael Connelly, Trunk Music

“Have you ever heard a blindfolded octopus unwrap a cellophane-covered bathtub?”
― Norton Juster, The Phantom Tollbooth

“Listening is the most dangerous thing of all, listening means knowing, finding out about something and knowing what’s going on, our ears don’t have lids that can instinctively close against the words uttered, they can’t hide from what they sense they’re about to hear, it’s always too late.”
― Javier Marías, A Heart So White

“She was hearing the words. They just weren't registering on her Richter scale of sanity.”
― Dakota Cassidy, The Accidental Werewolf

“How I wish I was like the water,
Flowing so freely with every drop
Let my every emotion wonder,
No need to start, nor even stop
How I wish I was like the fire,
Burning with every flame up
Leaving a trace of hot desire
As a Phoenix raises its' wings up
How I wish I was like the earth,
Raising each flower from the ground
Seeing the beauty of death and birth
And then returning to the ground
How I wish I was like the wind,
Hearing each whisper, sound and thought
A lonesome and wandering little wind,
Shattering all that has been sought
Oh, how I wish I was where you are,
Not separated by empty space, so far
It seems like we're galaxies apart,
But we find hope within our heart
And how I wish I was all of the above,
So I can come below and yet forget,
The beauty of angels which come down like a dove
And demons who love with no regret.”
― Virgil Kalyana Mittata Iordache

“Looking but not seeing is the hearing but not understanding of the eye.”
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana

“How do you listen? Do you listen with your projections, through your projection, through your ambitions, desires, fears, anxieties, through hearing only what you want to hear, only what will be satisfactory, what will gratify, what will give comfort, what will for the moment alleviate your suffering? If you listen through the screen of your desires, then you obviously listen to your own voice; you are listening to your own desires. And is there any other form of listening? Is it not important to find out how to listen not only to what is being said but to everything – to the noise in the streets, to the chatter of birds, to the noise of the tramcar, to the restless sea, to the voice of your husband, to your wife, to your friends, to the cry of a baby? Listening has importance only when on is not projecting one’s own desires through which one listens. Can one put aside all these screens through which we listen, and really listen?”
― Jiddu Krishnamurti, The Book of Life

“We hear only our own voices, still echoes returning to our emptiness.”
― Dejan Stojanovic, The Sun Watches the Sun

“Stop entertaining two faced people. You know the ones who have split personalities and untrustworthy habits. Nine times out of ten if they telling you stuff about another person, they're going to tell your business to other people. If they say, "You know I heard........." More than likely it's in their character to share false information. Beware of your box, circle, square! Whatever you want to call it.”
― Amaka Imani Nkosazana, Sweet Destiny

“There is a master way with words which is not learned but is instead developed: a deaf man develops exceptional vision, a blind man exceptional hearing, a silent man, when given a piece of paper...”
― Criss Jami, Venus in Arms

“Few love to hear the sins they love to act.”
― William Shakespeare, Pericles

“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

“Listen to your inner self, it knows you best.”
― C. Elizabeth

“When you are in psychological distress and someone really hears you without passing judgement on you, without trying to take responsibility for you, without trying to mold you, it feels damn good!”
― Carl R. Rogers, A Way of Being

“We talk a lot about the five senses: vision, hearing, smell, taste, and touch. I would add one more…imagination.”
― Wes Adamson

“During a conversation, listening is as powerful as loving.”
― Amit Kalantri, Wealth of Words

“The maddened four men followed frantically, for it is better to be in the presence of the awful than only within hearing. ("The Black Dog")”
― Stephen Crane, The Portable Stephen Crane

“Seeing is the property of our eyes. But we also use this word in other senses, when we apply the power of vision to knowledge generally. We do not say 'Hear how that flashes', or 'Smell how bright that is', or 'Taste how that shines' or 'Touch how that gleams'. Of all these things we say 'see'. But we say not only 'See how that light shines', which only the eyes can perceive, but also 'See how that sounds, see what smells, see what tastes, see how hard that is'. So the general experience of the senses is the lust, as scripture says, of the eyes, because seeing is a function in which eyes hold the first place but other senses claim the word for themselves by analogy when they are exploring any department of knowledge.”
― Augustine of Hippo, Confessions

“Silence is never empty.”
― Craig D. Lounsbrough

“I get fed up hearing about ‘War Crimes’ on the news, as the bulk of war crimes are never prosecuted.”
― Steven Magee

“I went rigid as I sensed Tamlin standing behind me, smelled the rain and spring meadow scent of him, richer than I'd ever noticed. I couldn't turn around to look at him- I couldn't... couldn't move. A High Fae- immortal. What had they done?

I could hear Tamlin holding his breath- hear as he loosed it. Hear the breathing, the whispering and weeping and quiet celebrating of everyone in that hall, still watching us- watching me- some chatting praise for the glorious power of the High Lords.

'It was the only way we could save you,' Tamlin said softly.”
― Sarah J. Maas, A Court of Thorns and Roses

“There is another peculiar satisfaction in really hearing someone: It is like listening to the music of the spheres, because beyond the immediate message of the person, no matter what that might be, there is the universal. Hidden in all of the personal communications, which I really hear there seem to be orderly psychological laws, aspects of the same order we find in the universe as a whole. So there is both the satisfaction of hearing this person and also the satisfaction of feeling one’s self in touch with what is universally true.”
― Carl Rogers

“Only when you're here are you able to hear.”
― maureen Muldoon , Giant Love Song: A Memoir

“Which is better?
To have heard the sound of children’s laughter?
To have listened to the song of birds at morning’s peak?
To have beat your fingers
in rhythm to the cities traffic?
to have giggled at the whispers of your lover’s sweet…
nothings?
Or never hearing any of those things at all?
Therefore never, forever craving those things that was?
Which is better?

Aw deaf man.
Can you even hear me?”
― N'Zuri Za Austin

“We now know that there is a critical period for language development. If you do not learn to speak as a youngster, you may never learn to speak. The babbling-cooing between baby and mother is a proto-language developed on the way to structuring specific facial muscles: the shapes that the tongue, lips, cheek and jaw will make and the ear will process in the construction of language. The baby is repeating the sounds she or he hears. It takes a lot of practice to get your tongue, mouth, jaw and cheek muscles to coordinate and accurately reflect back what is heard.”
― Susie Orbach, Bodies

“Being a good ally often means not speaking up when there are folks who can speak for themselves.”
― Dana Alison Levy, Being an Ally