When people talk, listen completely. Most people never listen.

—Ernest Hemingway

attention listening talking

About Ernest Hemingway

Portrait of Ernest Hemingway

Ernest Miller Hemingway ( HEM-ing-way; July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist, short-story writer, and journalist. Known for an economical, understated style that influenced later 20th-century writers, he has been romanticized for his adventurous lifestyle and outspoken, blunt public image. Some of his seven novels, six...

More quotations from Ernest Hemingway

I still need more healthy rest in order to work at my best. My health is the main capital I have and I want to administer it intelligently.

—Ernest Hemingway

Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.

—Ernest Hemingway

Yes, now. Now, please now, only now, not anything else only this now, and where are you and where am I and where is the other one, and not why, not ever why, only this now; and on and always please then always now, always now, for now always one now; one only one, there is no other one but one now, one, going now, rising now, sailing now, leaving now, wheeling now, soaring now, away now, all the way now, all of all the way now; one and one is one, is one, is one, is one, is still one, is still one, is one descendingly, is one softly, is one longingly, is one kindly, is one happily, is one in goodness, is one to cherish, is one now . . .

—Ernest Hemingway in For Whom the Bell Tolls

The most painful thing is losing yourself in the process of loving someone too much, and forgetting that you are special too.

—Ernest Hemingway

Few men are willing to brave the disapproval of their fellows, the censure of their colleagues, the wrath of their society. Moral courage is a rarer commodity than bravery in battle or great intelligence. Yet it is the one essential, vital quality of those who seek to change a world which yields most painfully to change

—Ernest Hemingway

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