The key to communication and having power and influence with people can be summed up in one sentence: Seek first to understand, then to be understood. In other words, listen first, talk second. This is Habit 5, and it works. If you can learn this simple habit—to see things from another’s point of view before sharing your own—a whole new world of understanding will be opened up to you.

The deepest need of the human heart is to be understood. Everyone wants to be respected and valued for who they are—a unique, one-of-a-kind, never-to-be-cloned (at least for now) individual.

People won’t expose their soft middles unless they feel genuine love and understanding. (From “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens” by Sean Covey, page 165)