WEEKEND

Weekend Words: Listen

“A good listener is a good talker with a sore throat.”
Weekend Editors7 hours ago
  
Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn, “Two men in discussion, a third listening to them” (c. 1634), brown ink and wash, 127 x 126 mm, Devonshire Collection, Chatsworth (image via Web Gallery of Art)
As Donald Trump listens to voices telling him that President Obama tapped his phone, Wikileaks releases a how-to manual on all the ways you can listen in on your cheating spouse’s phone calls, courtesy of the CIA. And of course it’s all a coincidence.
The first duty of love is to listen.
—Paul Tillich
Everything has been said but since nobody listens we have to go back to the beginning all over again.
—Andre Gide
It is the province of knowledge to speak, it is the privilege of wisdom to listen.
—Oliver Wendell Holmes
Bore, n.: A person who talks when you wish him to listen.
—Ambrose Bierce, The Devil’s Dictionary
A good listener is a good talker with a sore throat.
—Katharine Whitehorn
Why does my Muse only speak when she is unhappy
She does not, I only listen when I am unhappy
When I am happy I live and despise writing
For my Muse this cannot be but be dispiriting.
—Stevie Smith, “My Muse”
The opposite of talking isn’t listening. The opposite of talking is waiting.
—Fran Lebowitz
Listening, not imitation, may be the sincerest form of flattery.
—Joyce Brothers
Teach me half the gladness
That thy brain must know,
Such harmonious madness
From my lips would flow
The world should listen then, as I am listening now.
—Percy Bysshe Shelley, “To a Skylark”
Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self-confidence.
—Robert Frost
The artist doesn’t have time to listen to the critics. The ones who want to be writers read the reviews, the ones who want to write don’t have the time to read reviews.
—William Faulkner
My personal hobbies are reading, listening to music, and silence.
—Edith Sitwell
You should listen to your heart, and not the voices in your head.
—Matt Groening
The opposite of talking isn’t listening. The opposite of talking is waiting.
—Fran Lebowitz
Listening, not imitation, may be the sincerest form of flattery.
—Joyce Brothers
Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self-confidence.
—Robert Frost
The artist doesn’t have time to listen to the critics. The ones who want to be writers read the reviews, the ones who want to write don’t have the time to read reviews.
—William Faulkner
All-a my love, all-a my love
All a-my love come tumblin’ down
Oh, listen to the lion
Oh, listen listen listen, listen
To the lion, inside of me, inside of me
An’ I shall search my soul.
—Van Morrison, “Listen to the Lion”
My personal hobbies are reading, listening to music, and silence.
—Edith Sitwell
You should listen to your heart, and not the voices in your head.
—Matt Groening