Most business meetings are staged to supply people who'd rather talk than work with people who'd rather listen than work.

-Boyd, L(ouis) M(alcolm)
  'Grab Bag', in the San Francisco Chronicle,7  Apr.

We listen to others to discover what we ourselves believe.

-Grant, George P
Quoted in CBC  Times,18 Feb1959.

That man's silence is wonderful to listen to.

-Hardy,Thomas
  Under the Greenwood Tree, ch.14.

She taught me what her uncle once taught her: How easily the biggest coal block split If you got the grain and hammer angled right. The sound of that relaxed alluring blow, Its co-opted and obliterated echo, Taught me to hit, taught me to loosen, Taught me between the hammer and the block To face the music. Teach me now to listen, To strike it rich behind the linear black.

-Heaney, SeamusJustin
  The Haw Lantern,'Clearances: In Memoriam M.K.H., 1911^1984'.

If I had to give young writers advice, I would say don't listen to writers talking about writing or themselves.

-Hellman, Lillian Florence
  In the NewYork Times, 21 Feb.

Talk about those subjects you have had long in your mind, and listen to what others say about subjects you have studied but recently. Knowledge and timber shouldn't be much used till they are seasoned.

-Holmes, Oliver Wendell
^8  The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table, ch.6.

It is the province of knowledge to speak, and it is the privilege of wisdom to listen.

-Holmes, Oliver Wendell
  The Poet at the Breakfast  Table, ch.10.

Don't just move to the music, listen to what I'm saying.

-Marley, Bob (Robert Nesta)
Quoted in  Johnson and Pines Reggae (1982).

Not their style to say no.But when you listen†you don't hear yes.

-Nye,Joseph S,Jr
  On asking for Saudi  Arabia's help with the $500-million cost of US troop buildup in the Gulf. In the NewYork Times,4 Nov.

   Listentothemmoan, butthosepeoplewill be going mad if we beat West Germany by a goal in the World Cup Final.

-Ramsey, SirAlf(red)
  Of press criticism after England lost againstWest Germany in February, several months before England won theWorld Cup. Quoted in Bryon Butler The Official History of the Football Association (1986).

The trouble with me is, I always have to read that stuff by myself. If an actor reads it out, I hardly listen. I keep worrying about whether he's going to do something phoney every minute.

-Salinger,J(erome) D(avid)
  Of Hamlet.The Catcher in the Rye, ch.16.

   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 but be dispiriting.

-Smith, Stevie (Florence Margaret)
  Selected Poems,'My Muse'.

Writers are much more esteemed in Russia, they playa much larger part in society thantheydo in theWest.The advantage of not being free is that people listen to you.

-Snow, C(harles) P(ercy), 1st Baron
Interview on Radio Moscow.

La presse exerce encore un immense pouvoir en Ame¤  rique. Elle fait circuler la vie politique dans toutes les portions de ce vaste territoire. C'est elle dont l'½il toujours ouvert met sans cesse a'   nu les secrets ressorts de la politique, et force les hommes publics a'   venir tour a' tour compara|"tre devant le tribunal de l'opinion. C'est elle qui rallie les inte¤  re"  ts autour de certaines doctrines et formule le symbole des partis; c'est par elle que ceux-ci se parlent sans se voir, s'entendent sans e"  tre mis en contact. The presshas enormous power in America.It isthe press that circulates political life through all parts of this vast territory. Its eye is always open, and making known the secret springs of politics, thus forcing public men to appear before the tribunal of public opinion. It is the press which rallies the interests of the community round certain principles and forms the creed of different parties. Through the press these parties can speak to each other without seeing each other, can listenwithout meeting.

-Tocqueville, Alexis Charles Henri Cle¤  rel de
^40  De la De¤  mocratie en Ame¤  rique (Democracy in America), vol.1, pt.2, ch.3.

The President hears a hundred voices telling him that he is the greatest man in the world. He must listen carefully indeed to hear the one voice that tells him he is not.

-Truman, Harry S
  In ThisWeek, 5 Apr.