# “Impatient, inattentive listening” by Dietrich Bonhoeffer

- Link: https://tollelege.net/2009/03/20/impatient-inattentive-listening-by-dietrich-bonhoeffer/
- Published: 2009-03-20T00:28:11-05:00
- Author: tollelege

“There is a kind of listening with half an ear that presumes already to know what
the other person has to say. It is an impatient, inattentive listening, that despises
the brother and is only waiting for a chance to speak and thus get rid of the other
person. This is no fulfillment of our obligation, and it is certain that here too
our attitude toward our brother only reflects our relationship to God.”

–Dietrich Bonhoeffer, _[Life Together](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0060608528?tag=toletaupanre-20)_(
New York: Harper & Row, 1954), 98.

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