For Egyptologists like Jan Assmann, “the art of hearing is the great theme in Egyptian anthropology.” Perhaps, no other text makes this characterization more evident than The Maxims of Ptahhotep; a constitutive document in the Egyptian Wisdom literature written around 2350 BCE, and often touted as the oldest book in the world. Among the pieces of wisdom found in this text is the curious and important: "to listen is better than anything, thus is born perfect love." This chapter will present a conceptual analysis of the qualitative differences between a Maatian listening-centered view of communication excellence versus the classical speaker-center ancient Greek view of dialogue. Consequently, the chapter will treat the concept of communication as a corollary of the concept of love. The picture that emerges is one in which the “erotic” character of love advanced by Socrates in the Phaedrus in which communication aims to teach and express with fidelity and without distortion, stands in contrast to the Ma'atian guiding principle of “communicative solidarity,” a listening centered communication ethic premised on three principles 1) active solidarity (reciprocity); 2) communicative solidarity (shared moral language); and 3) intentional solidarity (prescriptive altruism). In short, Maat is about becoming lovable, crucially, to oneself.