Quotes about listening
page 23

David Sedaris photo
Dietrich Bonhoeffer photo

“Do you think that during the first five hours of the day you are the same as you are in the last five hours? No way. You’re tired, and if you’re tired, you stop listening, and the decisions you make are risky.”

Brunello Cucinelli (1953) Italian entrepreneur and philanthropist

Source: 10 Productivity Tips From the King of Cashmere, Brunello Cucinelli https://medium.com/@om/10-productivity-tips-from-the-king-of-cashmere-brunello-cucinelli-79c9cf74d9de Medium, Om Malik, April 27, 2015

Noam Chomsky photo

“The Crisis, the civilizational crisis of the West at this point is devastating... it does bring up childhood memories of listening to Hitler raving on the radio to raucous crowds... it makes you wonder if this species is even viable.”

Noam Chomsky (1928) american linguist, philosopher and activist

Noam Chomsky: Coronavirus - What is at stake? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-N3In2rLI4 | Democracy in Europe Movement 2025 (DiEM25) Mar 28, 2020
Quotes 2010s, 2020, Coronavirus - What is at stake?

Norman Solomon photo

“Activists have been encouraged by his ability to listen, learn and change...”

Norman Solomon (1951) American journalist, media critic, antiwar activist

Bernie’s Likely 2020 Bid Could Transform the Political Landscape (29 Jan 2019)

“I figure there's two things in a movie: that you are looking at something, you are listening to something. So I like to put a lot of attention into the music and into the recording of the dialogue and into the sets.”

Anna Biller (1965) film director

FrightFest 2016 - The Love Witch Interview with Anna Biller - 4 Sep 2016, at 0 Min 30 Sec https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_x4awb_fS84
From interview with FrightFest

George Monbiot photo
Khalil Gibran photo
Tavleen Singh photo

“When I go to the Vishwanath Mandir in Benares and listen to the most powerful, magical aarti I hear from the priests that the knowledge of it will probably die because the temple is now controlled by secular bureaucrats.”

Tavleen Singh (1950) Indian journalist

Tavleen Singh, quoted in https://talageri.blogspot.com/2016/05/hindutva-or-hindu-nationalism.html [This article is a major extract from the article "Sita Ram Goel, memories and ideas" by S. Talageri, written for the Sita Ram Goel Commemoration Volume, entitled "India's Only Communalist", edited by Koenraad Elst, published in 2005.

Diane Abbott photo
Goldie Hawn photo
Bernie Sanders photo

“I will never tell you how to vote. If I do, don't listen to me.”

Bernie Sanders (1941) American politician, senator for Vermont

Snopes.com found no record of Sanders saying those words. https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/bernie-sanders-told-supporters-hed-never-tell-them-how-to-vote/ May be derived from a statement during an MSNBC town hall in April 2016:

We are not a movement where I can snap my fingers and say to you or to anybody else what you should do, because you won't listen to me. You shouldn't. You'll make these decisions yourself.
Misattributed

John F. MacArthur photo
Pope John Paul II photo

“The disposition to listen to the Truth (that is, obedience) and the readiness to act in the Truth constitute the true dignity of the human person.”

Pope John Paul II (1920–2005) 264th Pope of the Catholic Church, saint

John Paul II. Teachings for an Unbelieving World . Ave Maria Press, Kindle Edition, March 2020

Tom Watson (Labour politician) photo

“And you know, woe betide politicians that don't listen to what voters tell them. You know, I think a future Europe will have to look at things like the free movement of labour rules.”

Tom Watson (Labour politician) (1967) British politician

Labour's Tom Watson: EU free movement rules must change https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-eu-referendum-36523759 BBC News (14 June 2016)
2016

Roger Waters photo
Prince photo
Benjamin Creme photo
Larry Niven photo
Ian McKellen photo

“The audience I play to really is the bright 14-year-old: someone who is capable of sitting still and listening and watching and feeling for even three hours. I know, as I did at that age, they'll potentially have their lives changed.”

Ian McKellen (1939) British actor

Ian McKellen Tours with Royal Shakespeare, 2007 https://www.backstage.com/magazine/article/ian-mckellen-tours-royal-shakespeare-25640/,

Prince photo
David Sedaris photo
Ibn Hazm photo
Don Bluth photo
Matthew Arnold photo

“[Indian Muslims are taught] “to vote communally, think communally, listen only to communal election speeches, judge the delegates communally...express their grievances communally.”

Wilfred Cantwell Smith (1916–2000) Canadian academic

W.C. Smith, 'Modern Islam in India': as quoted in Arun Shourie. “Falling Over Backwards.”
Modern Islam in India: A Social Analysis (1943, 1946, 1963), Victor Gollancz, London, ISBN 0-8364-1338-5

Wilfrid Laurier photo

“This was a leader who listened to all sides, perhaps too much.”

Wilfrid Laurier (1841–1919) 7th prime minister of Canada

Source: About, Chapter 4 Part 7 of Canadian History: Post-Confederation by John Douglas Belshaw

Nagin Cox photo
Nathalie Cabrol photo
Joe Biden photo
Cynthia Barnett photo
Eminem photo
Issa Rae photo
Prevale photo

“I love simplicity, I like people who know how to listen to music with their heart, feel the smells of life, capture their soul. Because there is truth there, there is sweetness... there is still love.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: (it) Amo la semplicità, mi piacciono le persone che sanno ascoltare musica con il cuore, sentire gli odori della vita, catturarne l'anima. Perché lì c'è verità, c'è dolcezza... lì c'è ancora amore.
Source: prevale.net

Prevale photo

“It's Christmas every time you smile at a child, holding his hand. It's Christmas every time you recognize your limits, your mistakes. It's Christmas every time you stay silent to hear each other. It's Christmas every time you give your sweetness with love. It's Christmas every time you listen to the song of the heart.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: (it) È Natale ogni volta che sorridi a un bimbo, tenendogli la mano. È Natale ogni volta che riconosci i tuoi limiti, i tuoi errori. È Natale ogni volta che rimani in silenzio per ascoltare l'altro. È Natale ogni volta che doni con amore la tua dolcezza. È​ Natale ogni volta che ascolti la canzone del cuore.
Source: prevale.net

Kadda Sheekoff photo

“I love listening to Alphaville, sometimes I take words from Alphaville and make them mine for example “Hoping for the best, but expecting the worst.”

Kadda Sheekoff (1993) Haitian rapper, singer, songwriter, record producer, actor, and entrepreneur

Source: https://m.imdb.com/name/nm11318964/quotes?ref_=m_nm_trv_trv

Albert D'Souza photo
Julius Streicher photo

“When one listens to your speeches it sounds as if you had always fought against capitalism. The truth is that it was you who gave all the power to capitalism. In this republic capitalism has grown as it had never before. You can think about the old state as you will, one thing is certain: it was not as rotten as the one you brought about! …
What shall one say when Reich president Ebert in his letters addresses the Jewish scoundrel Barmat as "My dear Barmat" and closes with the greeting "Yours Ebert?"”

Julius Streicher (1885–1946) German politician

Despite all the veneration that I feel for this man, whom by the way I respect more as a master saddle-maker than as a Reich president, I simply have to be astonished. Gentlemen, where is the "beauty and dignity"?
01/23/1925, speech in the Bavarian regional parliament ("Kampf dem Weltfeind", Stürmer publishing house, Nuremberg, 1938)
Original: Wenn man Euch reden hört, dann habt Ihr immer den Kapitalismus bekämpft. In Wirklichkeit habt Ihr den Kapitalismus erst in den Sattel gehoben. In dieser Republik hat sich der Kapitalismus ausgewachsen wie niemals zuvor. Mag man über den alten Staat denken wir man will, eines steht fest: so verlumpt war er nicht wie der, den Ihr uns gebracht habt! …
Was soll man dazu sagen, wenn ein Reichspräsident Ebert den jüdischen Schurken Barmat in Briefen mit "Mein lieber Barmat" anredet und ihn am Schlusse mit "Dein Ebert" grüßt? Bei aller Ehrfurcht, die ich vor dem Mann habe, den ich übrigens als Sattlermeister weit mehr schätze denn als Reichspräsident, muss ich mich doch sehr wundern. Meine Herren, wo ist da "Schönheit und Würde"?

Greg McKeown (author) photo

“When you pray is there anyone there listening?”

David H. C. Read (1910–2001) British chaplain

Start of the sermon "What Response to Our Prayers?", as quoted by Eugene L. Lowry in The Homiletical Plot: The Sermon as Narrative Art Form (2001), p. 36

“Look, see, behold. Above all, listen.”

Ch 3 - p.68
Novels, Midwinter Break (2017)

William Joseph Dendinger photo

“God speaks, we listen, and that's the whole process of discernment. Everybody has discernment all their life, what have I been blind to, and what do I need to do to recognize the presence of God in my life?”

William Joseph Dendinger (1939) Catholic bishop

Bishop William J. Dendinger - The Samaritan Woman https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rk1eGos_--Y (April 10, 2014)

Nuno Brás photo
Céline Cousteau photo

“Whenever I look at any environmental story, whether it’s oceans, jungles, Antarctica, or the Amazon, I look at the human side to translate it in a relevant way for human beings. It makes it more relevant and compelling to people who are watching, listening, reading.”

Céline Cousteau (1972) French-American explorer, filmmaker, and diver

Amazon ‘Tribes on the Edge’: Q&A with documentary filmmaker Céline Cousteau https://www.thenewleam.com/2021/04/amazon-tribes-on-the-edge-qa-with-documentary-filmmaker-celine-cousteau/ (April 22, 2021)

John Marshall photo

“Kids listen to kids. If you have a platform, why not use it to speak about things that can help other people?”

Lilia Buckingham (2003) American actress, author and dancer

Article https://www.seventeen.com/celebrity/a25320496/brat-youtube/ in Seventeen (27 November 2018)

Paulo Coelho photo
Prevale photo

“Only those who listen to music with the heart can experience the vibrations of love.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: (it) Solo chi ascolta musica col cuore riesce a provare le vibrazioni dell'amore.
Source: prevale.net

Prevale photo

“I would like every day to feel the scent of your skin, like the taste of your kiss, admire your sensuality, perceive your sweetness, listen to the beating of your heart, understand the depth of your soul, rejoice with your smile, have fun with your liking and be able to fully live your harmony.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: (it) Vorrei ogni giorno poter sentire il profumo della tua pelle, gradire il sapore di un tuo bacio, ammirare la tua sensualità, percepire la tua dolcezza, ascoltare il battito del tuo cuore, comprendere la profondità della tua anima, gioire con il tuo sorriso, divertirmi con la tua simpatia e poter vivere appieno la tua armonia.
Source: prevale.net

Prevale photo

“True love consists in sharing responsibilities, listening, sincerity, respect, sex, care, empathy, patience, planning and uniqueness.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: ​Il vero amore consiste nella condivisione delle responsabilità, dell'ascolto, della sincerità, del rispetto, del sesso, della cura, dell'empatia, della pazienza, della progettualità e dell'unicità.
Source: prevale.net

Allison Robertson photo

“I feel it is really different to be there at a show. It is such a great feeling and I hope that doesn’t die with the Internet as so many other things have. Go out, support those bands, have a beer, listen to some live music and don’t forget about it!”

Allison Robertson (1979) American musician

Round and Round with The Donnas: An Interview with Allison Robertson https://www.iconvsicon.com/2008/03/07/round-and-round-with-the-donnas-an-interview-with-allison-robertson/ (7 March 2008)

Michael J. Byrnes photo

“I cannot come in with preconceptions of any issue. I need to listen what we can do to resolve and heal the wounds left in the community.”

Michael J. Byrnes (1958) American Roman Catholic archbishop

An interview with Coadjutor Archbishop Michael Byrnes https://www.postguam.com/news/local/an-interview-with-coadjutor-archbishop-michael-byrnes/article_4718c446-a175-11e6-aa88-ab3f00f938d3.html (November 4, 2016)

Michael Foot photo

“If only my hon. Friend would conduct the novel experiment of listening with his ears instead of his voice, a whole new world would open to him.”

Michael Foot (1913–2010) British politician

Speech https://hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/1979-11-26/debates/294bd8ba-7ace-4fab-9f9c-12be13ccb2ad/CommonsChamber#contribution-6ae9a2db-2e77-4e8d-8630-d90f5f7d8d0e in the House of Commons (26 November 1979)
1970s

Cui Jian photo

“I had a lot of friends who worked in foreign embassies so I had the chance to exchange music tapes. That's the way I listened to a lot of rock music at that time”

Cui Jian (1961) Chinese rock musician of Korean descent

"Chinese rock legend sings on" in BBC (25 August 2010) https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-pacific-11067241

Natalie Goldberg photo
Chigozie Obioma photo
Faiz Ahmad Faiz photo
Samuel Beckett photo

“The confusion is not my invention. We cannot listen to a conversation for five minutes without being acutely aware of the confusion. It is all around us and our only chance now is to let it in.”

Samuel Beckett (1906–1989) Irish novelist, playwright, and poet

Tom F. Driver, "Beckett by the Madeleine" (1961), Columbia University Forum 4 (Summer 1961): 21-25; it later appeared in Stanley A. Clayes, ed., Drama and Discussion (1967), pp. 604-7, as quoted in "Rick On Theater" 25 January 2018 http://rickontheater.blogspot.com/2018/01/beckett-by-madeleine.html.

Nguyễn Văn Thiệu photo

“Don't listen to what the Communists say, but look at what they do.”

Nguyễn Văn Thiệu (1923–2001) president of South Vietnam from 1965–75

Bushy, D. The World Looked Away: Vietnam After the War, Archway Publishing, 2018 page 2.

Menotti Lerro photo

“If God entrusted his word to priests, it’s easy to explain why the world refuses to listen to it.”

Menotti Lerro (1980) Italian poet

Donna Giovanna, Act IV, scene ii.
Theater Quotes

Menotti Lerro photo
Daniel Dae Kim photo

“There is as much wisdom in listening as there is in speaking - and that goes for all relationships, not just romantic ones.”

Daniel Dae Kim (1968) American actor

"Our Latest TV Crush Object? Daniel Dae Kim" in Redbook (12 October 2010) https://www.redbookmag.com/love-sex/mens-perspective/interviews/a6687/daniel-dae-kim-interview/

Constance Wu photo

“Listening to an underserved population is how you begin to understand them and serve them better.”

Constance Wu (1982) American actress

As quoted in "'Fresh Off The Boat' Star Constance Wu On Why She's With Hillary Clinton" in Elite Daily (2 November 2016) https://www.elitedaily.com/news/politics/constance-wu-hillary-clinton/1678281

Miri Yu photo

“The word "interview" is written as taking material. If you come in contact with it like you want to take such material, it will be transmitted. So, instead of taking material, you are I think it's all about listening with the desire to know and listen to your story.”

Miri Yu (1968) Zainichi Korean writer

As quoted in "For those who have no place to live" A story spun by Miri Yu" in Teller Report (17 December 2020) https://www.tellerreport.com/life/2020-12-17-%0A---%22for-those-who-have-no-place-to-live%22-a-story-spun-by-miri-yu-%0A--.B1br_RudnD.html

Bill Gates photo

“Most governments take advantage of their scientists and listen to them. They don't undermine them and attack them.”

Bill Gates (1955) American business magnate and philanthropist

As quoted in "Bill Gates slams U.S. on Covid: Most governments listen to their scientists, not attack them" (14 October 2020) https://www.cnbc.com/2020/10/14/bill-gates-slams-us-on-covid-most-governments-listen-to-scientists.html
2020s

Julius Bahnsen photo

“And if my friends refused to listen to me, then the walls had to hear me or the stones in the fields and the trees of the forests.”

Julius Bahnsen (1830–1881) German philosopher

Quoted by Harry Slochower in "Julius Bahnsen, Philosopher of Heroic Despair, 1830-1881" (1932), The Philosophical Review, 41(4), p. 371

João Braz de Aviz photo

“We Christians believe in a sensitive God: He hears the groaning of the oppressed and listens to the widow’s plea; He suffers with and for humanity, we want to believe that consecrated life, with its many charisms, is the very expression of this sensitivity.”

João Braz de Aviz (1947) Catholic cardinal

Consecrated women and men are ‘witnesses to the beauty of God’ https://www.vaticannews.va/en/vatican-city/news/2021-03/cardinal-de-aviz-25-anniversary-vita-consecrata-exhortation.html (25 March 2021)

Greg McKeown (author) photo
Greg McKeown (author) photo
Michael Moorcock photo

“Listening to the conversation, his faith in the stupidity of human nature was fully restored.”

Michael Moorcock (1939) English writer, editor, critic

Source: The Winds of Limbo aka The Fireclown (1965), Chapter 17 (p. 252)

Poemen photo
Robert A. Heinlein photo
Reza Tajbakhsh photo
John Wayne photo

“In fact, I don't even call myself an actor. I'm a reactor. I listen to what to what the other guys says and I react to it.”

John Wayne (1907–1979) American film actor

Source: Speaking in 1958 with Charles Hamblett; as quoted in The Hollywood Cage (1969) by Hamblett, reproduced in "The Hollywood Cage': Wayne Has Method, Goldwyn Has Hope, Welles Has Wasteland" by Hamblett, The Philadelphia Inquirer (May 4, 1969), p. 109
Context: That's the John Wayne method.

Arundhati Roy photo
Maxine Hong Kingston photo

“I think that individual voices are not as strong as a community of voices. If we can make a community of voices, then we can speak more truth. Also in a community, we learn to listen…”

Maxine Hong Kingston (1940) Chinese American author

Source: On the strength of a community in “’I Can Write My Shadow’: Alexis Cheung Interviews Maxine Hong Kingston” https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/can-write-shadow-alexis-cheung-interviews-maxine-hong-kingston/ in Los Angeles Review of Books (2016 Dec 22)

Mirza Tahir Ahmad photo
Emmanuel Wamala photo

“I don't know these so-called priests, and the Church should not be scared. Many such people have emerged in Uganda and gone. I advise Ugandans neither to follow nor listen to them because they intend to divide the church.”

Emmanuel Wamala (1926) Catholic cardinal

Source: Twenty Ugandan priests form breakaway sect of married clerics https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/18210/twenty-ugandan-priests-form-breakaway-sect-of-married-clerics (2010)

Prayut Chan-o-cha photo

“Sometimes I feel a bit slighted. I am not sure whether you have heard me or listened to the information that we have sent out”

Prayut Chan-o-cha (1954) Thai military officer, junta chief, and politician

"Returning happiness to the people" speeches
Source: Thailand's leader will write soap operas to 'return happiness' to the people https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/09/29/thailands-leader-will-write-soap-operas-to-return-happiness-to-the-people (29 September 2014)

“When we include and listen to diverse ways of thinking, we make the impossible, possible.”

Bob Swan (1960) American business executive

citation needed

Peter F. Christensen photo

“While some bishops may travel with someone to help with the driving, I go by myself. I prefer it that way. I like the solitude. I don't listen to music. I pray and say the Rosary, or think about things. It gives me a lot of time to myself. Not everyone would like it.”

Peter F. Christensen (1952) Catholic bishop

Source: 6 Bishops on Their Favorite Saints, Spirituality https://www.ncregister.com/blog/6-bishops-on-their-favorite-saints-spirituality (21 January 2020)

Boris Johnson photo

“There is only one way to get the change we need - and that is to vote to go; because all EU history shows that they only really listen to a population when it says no.”

Boris Johnson (1964) British politician, historian and journalist

Source: EU referendum: Leaving EU a 'leap in the dark' says Cameron https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-eu-referendum-35634239 BBC News (22 February 2016)

“Take advantage of every opportunity that you get. I was always one to go into any singing competition and taking advantage of offers for any performances. Just get as much experience as you can. Don’t listen when people say "Oh you can’t do that." If you want it keep going for it.”

Victoria Duffield (1995) Canadian actor, singer and dancer

Source: Interview: Canada’s Hottest New Pop Star Victoria Duffield https://www.realstylenetwork.com/celebrities/2012/02/interview-canadas-hottest-new-pop-star-victoria-duffield/ (2012)

Chetan Bhagat photo
Jordan Peterson photo

“If you want to find out whether the person is there or the ideology is there, you listen to see if you're hearing anything that someone else with the same ideological mindset couldn't have told you.”

Jordan Peterson (1962) Canadian clinical psychologist, cultural critic, and professor of psychology

https://www.youtube.com/V32WHDuy-Do?t=904
Other

Laurence Tribe photo

“Every sentence, every phrase, is in part silent with respect to how a reader or listener is to go about attributing meaning to it...”

Laurence Tribe (1941) American lawyer and law school professor

Soundings and Silences (2016)

Gloria E. Anzaldúa photo
David Motiuk photo

“We like to do all the talking, but it's so important to listen.”

David Motiuk (1962) Canadian bishop

Source: Ukrainian Catholic Bishops of western Canada: Ad limina http://www.archivioradiovaticana.va/storico/2017/03/31/ukrainian_catholic_bishops_of_western_canada_ad_limina_/en-1302402 (31 March 2017)

John McDonnell photo

“I would swim through vomit to vote against this bill. And listening to some of the nauseating speeches in support of it, I might have to.”

John McDonnell (1951) British politician (born 1951)

Source: A profile of John McDonnell - new shadow chancellor https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-34245371 BBC News (14 September 2015)

Greta Thunberg photo
Fannie Hurst photo

“Luscious feet that listened to the soil and stole its secrets.”

Fannie Hurst (1889–1968) novelist

Lummox (1923)

Dilgo Khyentse photo