Most people have to talk so they won't hear.

listening speech talking hearing

About May Sarton

Eleanore Marie Sarton (May 3, 1912 – July 16, 1995), known by the pen name May Sarton, was a Belgian and American novelist, poet, and memoirist. Notably, Sarton came out as a lesbian in her writing in 1965, a time when it was highly unusual to do so.

More quotations from May Sarton

Loneliness is the poverty of self; solitude is the richness of self.

Everything that slows us down and forces patience, everything that sets us back into the slow cycles of nature, is a help.

patience nature

Why is it that people who cannot show feeling presume that that is a strength and not a weakness?

My home is not a place, it is people.

There is only one real deprivation... and that is not to be able to give one's gifts to those one loves most.

More quotations tagged with “talking”

One thing I've learned about people is that the easiest way to get them to like you is to shut up and let them do the talking.

—Jesse Andrews in Me and Earl and the Dying Girl

silence people listening talking

And even when they refuse to listen, I'll keep talking anyway, hoping on a slim chance that the things inside my head are worth something to someone.

—Nadège Richards

The opposite of talking isn't listening. The opposite of talking is waiting.

—Fran Lebowitz

listening talking waiting

If you ask what is the single most important key to longevity, I would have to say it is avoiding worry, stress and tension. And if you didn't ask me, I'd still have to say it.

—George Burns

tension longevity worry talking stress

Silence is one of the great arts of conversation, as allowed by Cicero himself, who says, 'there is not only an art, but an eloquence in it.' A well bred woman may easily and effectually promote the most useful and elegant conversation without speaking a word. The modes of speech are scarcely more variable than the modes of silence.

—W. Somerset Maugham

silence conversation talking elegance