Quotes About Silence

A wise old owl sat on an oak. The more he saw, the less he spoke. The less he spoke, the more he heard. Why can't we be like that old bird?

Next time a sunrise steals your breath or a meadow of flowers leave you speechless, remain that way. Say nothing and listen as Heaven whispers, Do you like it? I did it just for you.

There are times when God sends thunder to stir us. There are times when God sends blessings to lure us. But then there are times when God sends nothing but silence as he honors us with the freedom to choose where we spend eternity.

Next time a sunrise steals your breath or a meadow of flowers leaves you speechless, remain that way. Say nothing and listen as Heaven whispers, Do you like it? I did it just for you.

The quietness will slow my pulse, the silence will open my ears, and something sacred will happen. The soft slap of sandaled feet will break the stillness, a pierced hand will extend a quiet invitation, and I will follow.

We fear saying the wrong thing or using the wrong tone or acting the wrong way. So rather than do it incorrectly, we do nothing at all.

Nada acalla a los gruñones como la gratitud.

I was speaking well because I was talking to her; there are people who dry up language.

You must not tell anyone, what I am about to tell you.

Maybe because I was the one with the tongue cut loose, I had grown inside me a list of over two hundred things that I had to tell my mother so that she would know the true things about me and to stop the pain in my throat.

Plants do not speak, but their silence is alive with change.

There are some griefs so loud They could bring down the sky, And there are griefs so still None knows how deep they lie, Endured, never expended. There are old griefs so proud They never speak a word; They never can be mended. And these nourish the will And keep it iron-hard.

Most people have to talk so they won't hear.

The means of choice: She might choose to ascend The falling dream, By some angelic power without a name Reverse the motion, plunge into upwardness, Know height without an end, Density melt to air, silence yield a voice-- Within her fall she felt the pull of Grace.

In Texas there's so much space words have a way Of getting lost in the silence before they're spoken So people hang on a long time to what they have to say; And when they say it the silence is not broken, But it absorbs the words and slowly gives them Over to miles of white-gold plains and grey-green hills, And they are part of that silence that outlives them.

One thing is certain, and I have always known it—the joys of my life have nothing to do with age. They do not change. Flowers, the morning and evening light, music, poetry, silence, the goldfinches darting about …

Let silence in. She will rarely speak or mew, She will sleep on my bed And all I have ever been Either false or true Will live again in my head. For it is now or not As old age silts the stream, To shove away the clutter, To untie every knot, To take the time to dream, To come back to still water.

There is no need of words. Our lives will do, Long long enough to learn all of our love, While time, the river, flows gently below, Having no false eternities to prove. The night is full of unspent tenderness And in its silences we rest apart. There is no need of words with which to bless The daily bread, the wine of the full heart. Here are the peaceful days we cannot share. Here is our peace at last, and we not there.

It may be outwardly silent here but in the back of my mind is a clamor of human voices, too many needs, hopes, fears.

It is restful even to imagine expression without words.

Listen to yourself and in that quietude you might hear the voice of God.

There is no agony like bearing an untold story inside of you.

There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you." ? Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

Turning off or tuning out people was my highly developed art. The custom of letting obedient children be seen but not heard was so agreeable to me that I went one step further: Obedient children should not see or hear if they chose not to do so. I laid a handful of attention on my face and tuned up the sounds in the church.