When you really listen to another person from their point of view, and reflect back to them that understanding, it’s like giving them emotional oxygen.

His talent was as natural as the pattern that was made by the dust on a butterfly’s wings. At one time he understood it no more than the butterfly did and he did not know when it was brushed or marred.

It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt.

An intellectual says a simple thing in a hard way. An artist says a hard thing in a simple way.

Poets utter great and wise things which they do not themselves understand.

When our governments want to sell us a course of action, they do it by making sure it’s the only thing on the agenda, the only thing everyone’s talking about. And they pre-load the ensuing discussion with highly selected images, devious and prejudicial language, dubious linkages, weak or false ‚intelligence‘ and selected ‚leaks.‘

A mother defends herself with a heart filled with love before doing so with words. I wonder whether there is any love for the church in the hearts of those who pay so much attention to the scandals.

Children wish fathers looked but with their eyes; fathers that children with their judgment looked; and either may be wrong.

One merit of poetry few persons will deny: it says more and in fewer words than prose.

One man cannot hold another man down in the ditch without remaining down in the ditch with him.

If you would judge, understand.

Every man supposes himself not to be fully understood or appreciated.

If you make listening and observation your occupation you will gain much more than you can by talk.

Positional leaders ignore the fact that every person has hopes, dreams, desires, and goals of his own. And leaders must bring their vision and the aspirations of the people they lead together in a way that benefits everyone.

If you deny people their own voice, you’ll have no idea of who they were.

I look after people.

The design of the Mac wasn’t what it looked like, although that was part of it. Primarily, it was how it worked. To design something really well, you have to get it. You have to really grok what it’s all about. It takes a passionate commitment to really thoroughly understand something, chew it up, not just quickly swallow it.

No man ever believes that the Bible means what it says: He is always convinced that it says what he means.

Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. This is the interrelated structure of reality.

A man never tells you anything until you contradict him.

North Americans don’t understand… that our country is not just Cuba; our country is also humanity.

In terms of my involvement in ‚don’t ask, don’t tell‘ and marriage equality and anti-bullying and social emotional learning in schools – these are all things that arise out of my relationship with the world and with my fans.

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

A toddling little girl is a centre of common feeling which makes the most dissimilar people understand each other.

If I have something to say, I want it to be meaningful.

A man is more frank and sincere with his emotions than a woman. We girls, I’m afraid, have a tendency to hide our feelings.

The American people have not become heartless.

Talking with a friend is nothing else but thinking aloud.

A leader who confines his role to his people’s experience dooms himself to stagnation; a leader who outstrips his people’s experience runs the risk of not being understood.

Courageous people do not fear forgiving, for the sake of peace.

Breathe in deeply to bring your mind home to your body. Then look at, or think of, the person triggering this emotion: With mindfulness, you can see that she is unhappy, that she is suffering. You can see her wrong perceptions. You can see that she is not beautiful when she says things that are unkind.

To conceal anything from those to whom I am attached, is not in my nature. I can never close my lips where I have opened my heart.

I can unload my opinion on anybody at anytime.

Stage actors are usually much more conscious of speaking up and making sure that everyone can hear in the back of the theatre; a film actor probably thinks of that a little less.

When the players go home, I can’t tell them what to do, so you need to create an atmosphere of trust. I don’t want to think, ‚What are they doing now? Do I need to call them?‘

Let us make a special effort to stop communicating with each other, so we can have some conversation.

God never gives someone a gift they are not capable of receiving. If he gives us the gift of Christmas, it is because we all have the ability to understand and receive it.

It was books that taught me that the things that tormented me most were the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive, or who had ever been alive.

When a man says he had pleasure with a woman he does not mean conversation.

I think a lot of people, including me, clammed up when a civilian asked about battle, about war. It was fashionable. One of the most impressive ways to tell your war story is to refuse to tell it, you know. Civilians would then have to imagine all kinds of deeds of derring-do.

The way I talk is bizarre.

One must steer, not talk.

If you want peace, you don’t talk to your friends. You talk to your enemies.

I am not a speed reader. I am a speed understander.

I wash my hands of those who imagine chattering to be knowledge, silence to be ignorance, and affection to be art.

The superior man acts before he speaks, and afterwards speaks according to his action.

When marrying, ask yourself this question: Do you believe that you will be able to converse well with this person into your old age? Everything else in marriage is transitory.

You know, one race will not be a survivor if the other one dies, and that’s something that we should think about.

I have owed you this letter for a very long time-but my fingers have avoided the pencil as though it were an old and poisoned tool.

You must live for another if you wish to live for yourself.

Words, words, mere words, no matter from the heart.

Many people find the universe confusing – it’s not.

To jaw-jaw is always better than to war-war.

You’ve got to work things out in the cloakroom, and when you’ve got them worked out, you can debate a little before you vote.

Speeches that are measured by the hour will die with the hour.

All knowledge which ends in words will die as quickly as it came to life, with the exception of the written word: which is its mechanical part.

The thing about hip-hop today is it’s smart, it’s insightful. The way they can communicate a complex message in a very short space is remarkable.

See things from the boy’s point of view.

You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you.

When you hear people making hateful comments, stand up to them. Point out what a waste it is to hate, and you could open their eyes.

When a thoughtless or unkind word is spoken, best tune out.