We should all know this: that listening is not talking; [it] is the gifted and great role and the imaginative role. And the true listener is much more beloved, magnetic than the talker, and he is more effective, and learns more and does more good. And so try listening. Listen to your wife, your husband, your father, your mother, your children, your friends; to those who love you and those who don't, to those who bore you, to your enemies. It will work a small miracle. And perhaps a great one.
Brenda Ueland...at last I understood that writing was this: an impulse to share with other people a feeling or truth that I myself had.
Brenda UelandPeople who try to boss themselves always want (however kindly) to boss other people. They always think they know best and are so stern and resolute about it they are not very open to new and better ideas.
Brenda UelandWhen we are listened to, it creates us, makes us unfold and expand. Ideas actually begin to grow within us and come to life.
Brenda UelandThink of yourself as incandescent power, illuminated perhaps and forever talked to by God and his messengers.
Brenda UelandI want to write about the great and powerful thing that listening is. And how we forget it. And how we don't listen to our children, or those we love. And least of all - which is so important, too - to those we do not love. But we should. Because listening is a magnetic and strange thing, a creative force...When we are listened to, it creates us, makes us unfold and expand. Ideas actually begin to grow within us and come to life.
Brenda Ueland