Quotes About Silence

Late in the afternoon the sky changed to pale gray and there was rain in the air, the atmosphere close and stifling, and a silence clung heavily to the flat colorless plain.

Sometimes the fear was stronger than the anger. The plain was silent and in its darkness there was nothing to hold to.

Nothing could be more heart rending than this mute and motionless dispair

Living in musty shadows and dismal, oppressive silence, Thérèse could see her whole life stretching out before her totally void, bringing night after night the same cold bed and morning after morning the same empty day.

Jean-Louis had never had a day's illness in his life. He was tall and as gnarled as an oak. The sun had baked his skin until it had the colour and toughness and stillness of a tree. With advancing years, he had lost his tongue. He now never spoke, considering such an activity pointless.

She [Sidonie Rougon] never spoke of her husband, nor of her childhood, her family, or her personal concerns. There was only one thing she never sold, and that was herself.

For a few moments, raising his arms desperately, the Reverend Mouret implored Heaven. His shoulder-blades cracked, with such fantastic force did he pray. But soon enough his arms fell to his sides, his hopes abashed. From heaven came one of those silences utterly void of hope known to the devout.

She made one instinctive effort to resist and then yielded, slipping down on to the floor. Not a single word was exchanged. The act was silent and brutal

And, in the warm silence, in the peaceful solitude of the study, Clotilde smiled down at the baby who was still sucking - his little arm in the air, pointing upwards, a symbol of hope and life.

Life in the silent, secluded little mansion in Passy was as smooth and regular as the gentle ticking of its antiquated clocks. (89)

La nuit tombait, le jardin n'était plus qu'un grand cercueil d'ombre.

No joy could be greater, they knew, than that of being acknowledged a master, as he was. So he gave up trying to make himself understood and sat listening to them, without a word (79)

Then there was a little silence. Robert was not proud of himself for having been so cross, and the others were not proud of him either. You often notice that sort of silence when someone has said something it ought not to—and everyone else holds its tongue and waits for the one who oughtn't to have said it is sorry.

The house beneath slumbered in unbroken stillness. The silence filled his ears with a hum, which grew into a sound of whispering voices. Slowly and irresistibly these voices mastered him and increased the feeling of anxiety which had almost choked him several times that day. What could be the cause of such mental anguish? What could be the strange trouble which had slowly grown within him and had now become so unbearable? He had not fallen into sin.

Tais-toi, rêveuse ! Tu me fais trembler ... Tu te briseras les os, en retombant sur terre.

Cómo hacerla callar? ¿Cómo decirle a Denise que la adoraba, que ahora sólo existía ella?, que le sacrificaba todos sus antiguos amoríos de un día?

Words failed him again; he began to stammer in his unsuccessful attempt to express the first vague stirrings of the future he could feel within himself. While he finished feverishly brushing in the black velvet jacket, there was a long silence. (37)

It's no company at all, when people know nothing and say nothing,' she muttered.

I 'never told my love' vocally; still, if looks have language, the merest idiot might have guessed I was over head and ears;

I never told my love vocally still.

If I could I would always work in silence and obscurity, and let my efforts be known by their results.

Nunca le declaré abiertamente mi amor, pero si las miradas hablan, el más tonto habría podido advertir que me tenía trastornado el juicio.

He shall never know how I love him

Well, say I promise I won't speak: but that does not bind me not to laugh at him!