“Listening well and answering well is one of the greatest perfections that can be obtained in conversation.”
“Every person I work with knows something better than me. My job is to listen long enough to find it and use it.”
“Nature has given us two ears, two eyes, and but one tongue-to the end that we should hear and see more than we speak.”
“Set up the listening. Prepare who you are talking to for what you want them to hear. Get people to listen as a possibility rather than a problem.”
“Never speak of yourself to others; make them talk about themselves instead; therein lies the whole art of pleasing. Everybody knows it, and everyone forgets it.”
“People should talk less and draw more. Personally, I would like to renounce speech altogether and, like organic nature, communicate everything I have to say visually.”
“When I am getting ready to reason with a man, I spend one-third of my time thinking about myself and what I am going to say and two-thirds about him and what he is going to say.”
“To meet at all, one must open ones eyes to another; and there is no true conversation no matter how many words are spoken, unless the eye, unveiled and listening, opens itself to the other.”
“A good listener tries to understand what the other person is saying. In the end he may disagree sharply, but because he disagrees, he wants to know exactly what it is he is disagreeing with.”
“So when you are listening to somebody, completely, attentively, then you are listening not only to the words, but also to the feeling of what is being conveyed, to the whole of it, not part of it.”
“To be listened to is, generally speaking, a nearly unique experience for most people. It is enormously stimulating. It is small wonder that people who have been demanding all their lives to be heard so often fall speechless when confronted with one who gravely agrees to lend an ear. Man clamors for the freedom to express himself and for knowing that he counts. But once offered these conditions, he becomes frightened.”
“A new lens to look through. Hear the pain in people's speaking. People who have an ear to hear can hear. You will no longer tolerate what you used to tolerate. A second point of reality. Declare a new future. There are no right answers. There is no is. Give people breakdowns. It's the loving thing to do. What's being revealed here? Dogs don't have things wrong. Wrong disempowers people. Upsets indicate a ''right'' that's been violated. Notice when you are angry that you are the only one around. The only constant thing is you. Business is made up. It's invented. We invent our world through language. If it really turns you on, you may want to inform your face. There is no ''right'' way. A chair is only a chair because we say it's a chair.”