An essential part of true listening is the discipline of bracketing, the temporary giving up or setting aside of one's read more

An essential part of true listening is the discipline of bracketing, the temporary giving up or setting aside of one's own prejudices, frames of reference and desires so as to experience as far as possible the speaker's world from the inside, step in inside his or her shoes. This unification of speaker and listener is actually and extension and enlargement of ourselves, and new knowledge is always gained from this. Moreover, since true listening involves bracketing, a setting aside of the self, it also temporarily involves a total acceptance of the other. Sensing this acceptance, the speaker will fell less and less vulnerable and more and more inclined to open up the inner recesses of his or her mind to the listener. As this happens, speaker and listener begin to appreciate each other more and more, and the duet dance of love is begun again. -M. Scott Peck.

It is the province of knowledge to speak And it is the privilege of wisdom to listen. -Oliver Wendell Holmes.

It is the province of knowledge to speak And it is the privilege of wisdom to listen. -Oliver Wendell Holmes.

When you are arguing with a fool, make sure he isn't doing the same thing. -Unknown.

When you are arguing with a fool, make sure he isn't doing the same thing. -Unknown.

Everything has been said before, but since nobody listens we have to keep going back and beginning all over again.

Everything has been said before, but since nobody listens we have to keep going back and beginning all over again.

Be a good listener. Your ears will never get you in trouble.

Be a good listener. Your ears will never get you in trouble.

Listen, every one
That listen may, unto a tale
That's merrier than the nightingale.
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Listen, every one
That listen may, unto a tale
That's merrier than the nightingale.
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Tales of a Wayside Inn (pt. III,),

And he goes through life, his mouth open, and his mind closed.

And he goes through life, his mouth open, and his mind closed.

I think I will do nothing for a long time but listen.

I think I will do nothing for a long time but listen.

Nature gave us one tongue and two ears so we could hear twice as much as we speak.

Nature gave us one tongue and two ears so we could hear twice as much as we speak.