Skip to content
quotesby

About this quote

What does it mean?
Understanding others requires listening to what they do not reveal or say explicitly.
In plain terms
To understand people, listen to their silences as much as their words.
What can you take from it?
Listen to the unsaid to truly understand others.

Where it applies

  • negotiation
  • relationships
  • therapy

Putting it to work

  • listen actively
  • observe body language
  • value silence

Questions to consider

  • What are others not saying to you?
  • How do you listen beyond words?

Another view

Overinterpreting silence can lead to assumptions that are inaccurate or harmful.

More from Khalil Gibran

  1. Tenderness and kindness are not signs of weakness and despair but manifestations of strength and resolution.

    Permalink to quote #71
  2. If you love somebody, let them go, for if they return, they were always yours. And if they don't, they never were.

    Permalink to quote #73
  3. Keep me away from the wisdom which does not cry, the philosophy which does not laugh and the greatness which does not bow before children.

    Permalink to quote #70

Related quotes

  1. Don't worry honey, I didn't see a thing...you're perfect!

    Rodney DangerfieldRodney Dangerfield quote #57
  2. He who doesn't understand your silence will probably not understand your words.

    Elbert HubbardElbert Hubbard quote #82
  3. There are many things that men and women do not say, because to say them would only bring unhappiness

    Orson Scott CardOrson Scott Card quote #471