quotations about silence
Shutting the f*** up is seldom a bad move.
LAURELL K. HAMILTON
Cerulean Sins
Still-born Silence! thou that art
Floodgate of the deeper heart.
RICHARD FLECKNOE
Poems
Silence is golden when you can't think of a good answer.
MUHAMMAD ALI
attributed, The Gospel According to ESPN
Well-timed silence hath more eloquence than speech.
MARTIN FARQUHAR TUPPER
Proverbial Philosophy
Silence should be cultivated as a great virtue; it keeps secrets and avoids disputes.
WALTER MATTHEWS
Human Life from Many Angles
Nothing was more conducive to the development of observation than compulsory silence.
F. SCOTT FITZGERALD
Tender Is the Night
About what one can not speak, one must remain silent.
LUDWIG WITTGENSTEIN
Tractacus Logico-Philosophicus
Blessed is the man who, having nothing to say, abstains from giving us wordy evidence of the fact--from calling on us to look through a heap of millet-seed in order to be sure that there is no pearl in it.
GEORGE ELIOT
Theophrastus Such
There are times when silence is the best way to yell at the top of your voice.
O. A. BATTISTA
attributed, Braude's Second Encyclopedia of Stories, Quotations, and Anecdotes
Do not too hastily conclude that silence is indifference. Indifference is not to care, not to act, not even to think or breathe. Indifference is inhuman and inhumane. Silence, on the other hand, is almost always premeditated, a willful act. Without silence there would be no sound.
JUSTIN BRYAN SNIDER
posted on daily quotation board at Li Po Chun United World College of Hong Kong, October 17, 2006
Many a fine sermon doth Nature preach on the ever-new, forever-transgressed text of silence. It is not the roaring thunder that smites, but the silent lightning; and gravity, which bindeth worlds together and keepeth them from falling asunder, is ever silent. Prettily, too, doth the silent snow cover the ground, and make it like unto a table spread for a feast: unlike the noisy rain, which, after making a goodly number of puddles, quickly runneth off.
IVAN PANIN
Thoughts
In silence you can't hide anything ... as you can in words.
AUGUST STRINDBERG
The Ghost Sonata
There is a silence where no sound may be,
In the cold grave--under the deep, deep sea,
Or in wide desert where no life is found,
Which hath been mute, and still must sleep profound.
THOMAS HOOD
"Silence"
Silence when in pain
Silence when my thoughts may cause a slight unease
Silence when in pain
Silence cause the fear it begins with a sound
Silence in the chair where they give me the answers
Silence when I'm asking a difficult question
Silence cause I already know all the facts yeah
Silence cause I don't want to hear it today
FICTION PLANE
"Silence"
I have known the silence of the stars and of the sea,
And the silence of the city when it pauses,
And the silence of a man and a maid,
And the silence for which music alone finds the word.
EDGAR LEE MASTERS
Silence
Silence is silence -- though it may speak volumes.
JOHN MCTERNAN
"Why Big Ben's silence upsets so many Brits", CNN, August 21, 2017
Silence is like nightfall. Objects are lost in it insensibly.
MADAME SWETCHINE
"Airelles", The Writings of Madame Swetchine
But my words like silent raindrops fell, and echoed in the wells of silence.
PAUL SIMON
The Sound of Silence
Silence is a figure of speech, unanswerable, short, cold, but terribly severe.
THEODORE PARKER
"Justice and the Conscience", The Collected Works of Theodore Parker: Sermons & Prayers
Silence is the safety zone of conversation.
ARNOLD H. GLASOW
attributed, Reader's Digest, 1975