People hear you on the level you speak to them from. Speak from your heart, and they will hear with theirs.

Beyond the obvious facts that he has at some time done manual labour, that he takes snuff, that he is a Freemason, that he has been in China, and that he has done a considerable amount of writing lately, I can deduce nothing else.

But how could you guess what the motive was?

I've been a story-teller all my life but I realized it only recently.

Where more is meant than meets the ear.

On July 30, 1723, when he was nineteen years old, Edwards wrote in his diary, "I have concluded to endeavor to work myself into duties by searching and tracing back all the real reasons why I do them not, and narrowly searching out all the subtle subterfuges of my thoughts." A week later he wrote, "Very much convinced of the extraordinary deceitfulness of the heart, and how exceedingly… appetite blinds the mind, and brings it into entire subjection.

An unguarded face is a deep well; you don't go there casually, without ropes or lamps.

If someone walks by or speaks to you, you may find that your power of attentiveness extends to this person as well. Even if you do not know him, you may be able to see his soul too, the one he thinks he has so carefully covered up. There is something he is working on in his life, the same way you are working on something. Can you see it in his face? You are related, even if you do not know each other's names.

I see 'Hansel and Gretel' as a breakthrough book for me, and one of the reasons is because I started to apply meaning to the hidden details.

I think most people are inherently interested in how their brain works, in what makes them tick.

You must originate, and you must sympathize; yon must possess, at the same time, the habit of communicating and the habit of listening. The union is rather rare, but irresistible.

One learns people through the heart, not through the eyes or the intellect.