Top 40 Quotes About Listening (2025 Update)

1. “Listening is not understanding the words of the question asked, listening is understanding why the question was asked in the first place.”

— Simon Sinek

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2. “One of the most sincere forms of respect is actually listening to what another has to say.”

— Bryant McGill

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3. “We have two ears and one mouth so that we can listen twice as much as we speak.”

— Epictetus

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4. “People don’t listen to understand. They listen to reply. The collective monologue is everyone talking and no one listening.”

— Stephen R. Covey

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5. “If you’re not listening, you’re not learning.”

— Lyndon B. Johnson

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6. “Everybody talks, nobody listens. Good listeners are as rare as white crows.”

— Helen Keller

7. “Listening without bias or distraction is the greatest value you can pay another person.”

— Denis Waitley

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8. “Always keep your ego in check and not be afraid to listen. Listening is a great art form.”

— Clint Eastwood

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9. “Before you speak, listen.”

— William Arthur Ward

10. “Lead by listening – to be a good leader you have to be a great listener.”

— Richard Branson

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11. “Wisdom comes with the ability to be still. Just look and just listen. No more is needed. Being still, looking, and listening activates the non-conceptual intelligence within you. Let stillness direct your words and actions.”

— Eckhart Tolle

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12. “Attentive listening to others lets them know that you love them and builds trust, the foundation of a loving relationship.”

— Brian Tracy

13. “Wisdom is the reward you get for a lifetime of listening when you’d have preferred to talk.”

— Doug Larson

14. “Teaching is listening, learning is talking.”

— Deborah Meier

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15. “Listen with your heart, you will understand.”

— Pocahontas

16. “Listening is not the same as hearing and hearing is not the same as listening.”

— Pauline Oliveros

17. “Let go of your mind and then be mindful. Close your ears and listen!”

— Rumi

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18. “The size of your audience doesn’t matter. What’s important is that your audience is listening.”

— Randy Pausch

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19. “Compassionate listening is to help the other side suffer less. If we realize that other people are the same people as we are, we are no longer angry at them.”

— Nhat Hanh

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20. “Listen to the sound of silence.”

— Paul Simon

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21. “Go out in the world and work like money doesn’t matter, sing as if no one is listening, love as if you have never been hurt, and dance as if no one is watching.”

— Victor Hugo

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22. “You can tell a person’s past, present and future by listening to the words they use.”

— Robert T. Kiyosaki

23. “Concentrate on what you want to say to yourself and your friends. Follow your inner moonlight; don’t hide the madness. You say what you want to say when you don’t care who’s listening.”

— Allen Ginsberg

24. “I remind myself every morning: Nothing I say this day will teach me anything. So if I’m going to learn, I must do it by listening.”

— Larry King

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25. “Prayer is first of all listening to God. It’s openness. God is always speaking; he’s always doing something.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

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26. “No man ever listened himself out of a job.”

— Calvin Coolidge

27. “The reality of the other person is not in what he reveals to you, but in what he cannot reveal to you. Therefore, if you would understand him, listen not to what he says but rather to what he does not say.”

— Khalil Gibran

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28. “Keep listening to music, it gets you through everything. I promise.”

— Mitch Lucker

29. “There’s a time for words and a time for silence. If you’re listening, you’ll hear the difference.”

— Yasmin Mogahed

30. “Through our eyes, the universe is perceiving itself. Through our ears, the universe is listening to its harmonies. We are the witnesses through which the universe becomes conscious of its glory, of its magnificence.”

— Alan Watts

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31. “I’m listening to Aphex Twin. That makes me cultured and interesting.”

— Thom Yorke

32. “Our bodies communicate to us clearly and specifically, if we are willing to listen to them.”

— Shakti Gawain

33. “Proper listening is the foundation of proper living.”

— Plutarch

34. “There is no such thing as a worthless conversation, provided you know what to listen for. And questions are the breath of life for a conversation.”

— James N. Miller

35. “Beware of listening to this impostor; you are undone if you once forget that the fruits of the earth belong to us all, and the earth itself to nobody.”

— Jean-Jacques Rousseau

36. “Be loyal to your boss, your company, your co-workers. Someone is always listening.”

— Brian Tracy

37. “Listening, Testing, Coding, Designing. That’s all there is to software. Anyone who tells you different is selling something.”

— Kent Beck

38. “Seungri, are you listening? I love you.”

— G-Dragon

39. “Listen to them! How wholly infused with God is this one big word of love that we call the world!”

— John Muir

40. “I’m not ashamed, or embarrassed. I’m happy that I grew up listening to gospel music and came from where I came from. I feel like I have a history and a story. That’s what I am and that’s what I’ll always be from. I was never running away from it.”

— Katy Perry

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