We have two ears and only one mouth so that we can listen twice as much as we speak.
- Topic: Communication, Listening, Speech
- Location: Bahamas
- Photo: Jeffrey Benjamin
More Quotes from Epictetus
Appearances to the mind are of four kinds. Things either are what they appear to be; or they neither are, nor appear to be; or they are, and do not appear to be; or they are not, and yet appear to be. Rightly to aim in all these cases is the wise man’s task.
The key is to keep company only with people who uplift you, whose presence calls forth your best.
Be not swept off your feet by the vividness of the impression, but say, “Impression, wait for me a little. Let me see what you are and what you represent. Let me try you.”
If you are ever tempted to look for outside approval, realize that you have compromised your integrity.
No thing great is created suddenly, any more than a bunch of grapes or a fig. If you tell me that you desire a fig, I answer you that there must be time. Let it first blossom, then bear fruit, then ripen.
Any one thing in creation is sufficient to demonstrate a Providence to a humble and grateful mind.
How long are you going to wait before you demand the best for yourself?
More Quotes from Bahamas
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He’s a wonderful talker, who has the art of telling you nothing in a great harangue.
Man's tongue is soft, and bone doth lack; yet a stroke therewith may break a man's back.
All the great things are simple, and many can be expressed in a single word: freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope.
The world is a mountain, in which your words are echoed back to you.
Madness does not govern a country; discussion does.
Words are more treacherous and powerful than we think.
Noise proves nothing. Often a hen who has merely laid an egg crackles as if she had laid an asteroid.
Listen with ears of tolerance, see through the eyes of compassion, speak with language of love.
Silence at the proper season is wisdom, and better than any speech.
A leader who does not take advice is not a leader.
You will never be able to escape from your heart. So it is better to listen to what it has to say.
Meaningful silence is better than meaningless words.
It is absurd to hold that a man ought to be ashamed of being unable to defend himself with his limbs, but not of being unable to defend himself with speech and reason.
Remember not only to say the right thing in the right place, but far more difficult still, to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment.
The thought of only being a creature of the present and the past was troubling. I longed for a future, too, with hope in it. The desire to be free, awakened my determination to act, to think, and to speak.
Great wisdom is generous, petty wisdom is contentious. Great speech is impassioned, small speech in cantankerous.
People who know what they’re talking about don’t need PowerPoint.
Since men are neither omniscient nor infallible, they must be free to agree or disagree, to cooperate or to pursue their own independent course, each according to his own rational judgment. Freedom is the fundamental requirement of man's mind.
The truth is always exciting. Speak it, then. Life is dull without it.
Fear of serious injury cannot alone justify suppression of free speech and assembly. Men feared witches and burned women. It is the function of speech to free men from the bondage of irrational fears.