Quotes About Silence

The wakeful nightingale,She all night long her amorous descant sung;Silence was pleas'd: now glow'd the firmamentWith living sapphires: Hesperus, that ledThe starry host, rode brightest, till the moon,Rising in clouded majesty, at lengthApparent queen unveil'd her peerless light,And o'er the dark her silver mantle threw.

The seat of desolation, void of light.

Sweet the coming onOf grateful ev'ning mild, then silent nightWith this her solemn bird, and this fair moon,And these the gems of heaven, her starry train.

Soon as midnight brought on the dusky hour Friendliest to sleep and silence.

The sun to me is darkAnd silent as the moon,When she deserts the night,Hid in her vacant interlunar cave.

O nightingale, that on yon bloomy sprayWarbl'st at eve, when all the woods are still.

How sweetly did they float upon the wingsOf silence, through the empty-vaulted night,At every fall smoothing the raven downOf darkness till it smil'd!

The Oracles are dumb.

I will not deny but that the best apology against false accusers is silence and sufferance, and honest deeds set against dishonest words.

Take time to see the quiet miracles that seek no attention

One of the tasks of true friendship is to listen compassionately and creatively to the hidden silences. Often secrets are not revealed in words, they lie concealed in the silence between the words or in the depth of what is unsayable between two people.

for poets, at least, experiencing something inexpressible does not mean silence. It's precisely the inexpressible something that poetry is meant to help us see or feel. If it were merely expressible - if there were nothing ineffable about it - there would be no need for a poem. But everywhere in the Bible we meet reality that exceeds our expectations.

Whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God" (Rom. 3:9–10, 19).

There is a world of difference between the silence of apathy and the silence of passion!

Seven hundred years before John wrote these words about the Daughter of Babylon the prophet Isaiah wrote: "You said, 'I will continue forever–the eternal queen! But you did not consider these things or reflect on what might happen." (Isaiah 47:7) "Sit in silence, go into darkness, Daughter of the Babylonians; no more will you be called the queen of kingdoms." (Isaiah 47:5)

When you have nothing to say, one of your alternatives is to keep your trap shut.

Criticism is perhaps the citizen's primary weapon in the exercise of her legitimacy. That is why, in the corporatist society, conformism, loyalty and silence are so admired and rewarded; why criticism is so punished or marginalized. Who has not experienced this conflict?

Musical rests

My father was a very great man. I will never forget the last thing he ever said to me. Nor will I ever repeat it.

What it would be like to simply disappear into the blackness, to float forever in silence and nothingness.

The silence of the building closed around him like a shroud.

The terrible dark, where nothing, not even time itself, existed.

Never tell your resolution beforehand, or it's twice as onerous a duty.

A wise man should never resolve upon anything, at least, never let the world know his resolution, for if he cannot reach that he is ashamed.*