quotations about silence
In this white wave
I am sinking
in this silence
in this white wave
in this silence
I believe
SARAH MCLACHLAN
"Silence (Delirium)"
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"
Quiet is peace. Tranquility. Quiet is turning down the volume knob on life. Silence is pushing the off button. Shutting it down. All of it.
KHALED HOSSEINI
The Kite Runner
But let me have silence always, in the centre of the shouting--that is essential! Let me have silence so that no pin may drop and not be heard, and not a whisper escape us for all our spouting, nor the needle's scratching upon this gramophone of a circular cosmic spot. Hear me! Mark me! Learn me! Throw the mind's ear open--shut up the mind's eye--all will be music!
WYNDHAM LEWIS
One-way Song
When two people understand each other, what wonderful things they can convey in silence.
JOHN DANIEL BARRY
"Silence", Reactions and Other Essays
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
Silence gives consent.
POPE BONIFACE VIII
Canon Law, Decretals
When I pronounce the word Silence,
I destroy it.
WISLAWA SZYMBORSKA
Poems New and Collected
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 makes idiots seem wise even for a minute.
CARLOS RUIZ ZAFON
The Angel's Game
Silence is deadly and inaction = complicity.
WILLIAM GRAVELY
The Weekly Challenger, August 18, 2017
Let us sculpt in hopeless silence all our dreams of speaking.
FERNANDO PESSOA
The Book of Disquiet
I am afraid you will forgive the length neither of my letter nor of my silence, and will be as much bored by the silver of the one as by the golden of the other.
LORD ACTON
letter to Mary Gladstone, March 15, 1880
The cruelest lies are often told in silence.
ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON
Virginibus Puerisque
It's not the reasoning
It's not the logic
It's not the questions
Third degree
It's not acceptance
No, it's not defiance
It's the silence
COREY GLOVER
"Silence"
Silence, when nothing need be said, is the eloquence of discretion.
CHRISTIAN NESTELL BOVEE
Intuitions and Summaries of Thought
In truth, it would seem that, living in the incessant din of a Calvinistic country, the best course for thoughtful and serious men was to be silent.
WALTER BAGEHOT
Literary Studies
Fear of the unknown
Is bad enough, yeah
But saying nothing
Says so much
COREY GLOVER
"Silence"
When images become inadequate, I shall be content with silence.
ANSEL ADAMS
attributed, AB bookman's weekly: for the specialist book world
Silence is a choice, it is not a secondary action, but a conscious decision made in a moment. This is not always something that we want to acknowledge. However, it is an important reality that we have the opportunity to confront head on.
MELISSA HURLEY
"Choosing silence", Record Bee, August 12, 2017