Social reformer Jane Addams was once addressing a group of women in Chicago, most of them first-generation immigrants, who were having a hard time holding the respect and understanding of their own daughters. She told them that when their adolescent daughters came home from school and wanted to talk to them, they had better stop everything and listen, even if the cake burned in the oven! "Because," she added, "if you don't listen to the little things first, the big things won't come out."
— Jane Addams, Dimensions of Prayer by Douglas V. Steere