Dialogues of the Deaf

Listen to all the conversations of our world, those between nations as well as those between couples. They are for the most part dialogues of the deaf. Each one speaks primarily in order to set forth his own ideas, in order to justify himself and to accuse others. Exceedingly few exchanges of viewpoints manifest a real desire to understand the other person.

--Paul Tournier, To Understand the Other (trans. J. S. Gilmour; Richmond: John Knox, 1969), 8-9