quotations about silence
There are so many things in life that we ought to be silent about. Nearly always they are unpleasant. Our silence tends to minimize them, often to destroy them altogether. By speaking of them, we give them renewed life and activity. If every one of us could only take the unpleasant as it enters consciousness and let it perish there, what a burden would be lifted off the world.
JOHN DANIEL BARRY
"Silence", Reactions and Other Essays
As we must account for every idle word, so we must for every idle silence.
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN
Poor Richard's Almanack, 1738
Let us sculpt in hopeless silence all our dreams of speaking.
FERNANDO PESSOA
The Book of Disquiet
Silence! Oh, well are Death and Sleep and Thou
Three brethren named, the guardians gloomy-winged,
Of one abyss, where life and truth and joy
Are swallowed up.
PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY
fragment, Notebook 6
Silence is sometimes more significant and sublime than the most noble and most expressive eloquence, and is on many occasions the indication of a great mind.
JOSEPH ADDISON
The Tatler, February 14, 1709
When I pronounce the word Silence,
I destroy it.
WISLAWA SZYMBORSKA
Poems New and Collected
In this white wave
I am sinking
in this silence
in this white wave
in this silence
I believe
SARAH MCLACHLAN
"Silence (Delirium)"
The best way to describe silence is to say nothing--but what grace!
GENE WOLFE
The Book of the New Sun
Fear of the unknown
Is bad enough, yeah
But saying nothing
Says so much
COREY GLOVER
"Silence"
Before the invader sound was born, the Universe was silent and shall be again.
ROBERT E. HOWARD
Kull: Exile of Atlantis
Death's Waylaying not the sharpest
Of the thefts of Time --
There Marauds a sorer Robber,
Silence -- is his name --
No Assault, nor any Menace
Doth betoken him.
But from Life's consummate Cluster --
He supplants the Balm.
EMILY DICKINSON
"Death's Waylaying not the sharpest"
Silence is not an apolitical action.... To remain silent is to remain complicit.
KELSEY MCKINNEY
"Blank Space: Taylor Will Not--and Should Not--Solve Your Donald Trump Anxiety", The Ringer, August 31, 2017
Silence is deadly and inaction = complicity.
WILLIAM GRAVELY
The Weekly Challenger, August 18, 2017
Silence, when nothing need be said, is the eloquence of discretion.
CHRISTIAN NESTELL BOVEE
Intuitions and Summaries of Thought
Silence gives consent.
POPE BONIFACE VIII
Canon Law, Decretals
Silence makes idiots seem wise even for a minute.
CARLOS RUIZ ZAFON
The Angel's Game
We talked together through that silence in the language of thought. Nothing is more rapturous than these mute conversations.
HONORÉ DE BALZAC
Physiology of Marriage
Saying the things you do not have to say weakens your talk.
WILLIAM STAFFORD
Crossing Unmarked Snow
When images become inadequate, I shall be content with silence.
ANSEL ADAMS
attributed, AB bookman's weekly: for the specialist book world
A musical theme once exhausted, finds its due refuge and repose in silence.
HENRI-FREDERIC AMIEL
Journal Intime