Quotes About Silence

I have often been charged with falsehood and hypocrisy, yet there lives not the man who would more gladly than I speak truthfully and lay bare his heart; but as I have not one idea, one feeling in common with the people who surround me, as the very first word I should speak truthfully would cause a general hue and cry, I have preferred to keep silent, or, if I do speak, to utter only stupid commonplaces which everyone has agreed to believe in.

Jésus n'a pas besoin de livres ni de docteurs pour instruire les âmes; lui, le Docteur des docteurs, enseigne sans bruit de paroles.

Stopping the internal dialogue is the singularly most important act an apprentice must accomplish in order to unlock his or her full potential as a magical being.

A multitude of words is no proof of a prudent mind.

Before I Talk, I Should Read A Book

Even a blockhead may respect inspire, So long as he is suitably attired; A fool may gain esteem among the wise, So long as he has sense to hold his tongue.

Thundering in my head; the sound of silence overwhelms.

Shut me up, Turn me on, Shut me up,

Nothing is more becoming a man than silence. It is not the preaching but the practice which ought to be considered as the more important. A profusion of words is sure to lead to error.

The deeper the sorrow the less tongue it hath.

Truth doesn't make a noise.

Don't play everything (or every time); let some things go by… What you don't play can be more important than what you do.

The loudest noise in the world is silence.

Das Bedürfnis, Leiden beredt werden zu lassen, ist Bedingung aller Wahrheit. (The need to lend a voice to suffering [literally: "to let suffering be eloquent"] is the condition of all truth)

Perennial suffering has as much right to expression as a tortured man has to scream; hence it may have been wrong to say that after Auschwitz you could no longer write poems.

Sociability itself connives at injustice by pretending that in this chill world we can still talk to each other, and the casual, amiable remark contributes to perpetuating silence, in that the concessions made to the interlocutor debase him once more in the person of speaker.

The need always to lie and always to avoid the truth stripped everyone of what Custine called 'the two greatest gifts of God—the soul and the speech which communicates it.' People became hypocritical, cunning, mistrustful, cynical, silent, cruel, and indifferent to the fate of others as a result of the destruction of their own souls.

I've heard a hundred different variations of instances of unadulterated female victimhood, yet the silence of the feminists is deafening. Where two pieties--feminism and multi-culturalism--come into conflict, the only way of preserving both is an indecent silence.

Where two pieties—feminism and multiculturalism—come into conflict, the only way of preserving both is an indecent silence.

The most difficult thing in the world is to know how to do a thing and to watch someone else do it wrong without comment

Anyone who refuses to speak out off campus does not deserve to be listened to on campus.

I see, in evening air,How slowly dark comes down on what we do.

Nothing would sleep in that cellar.

I long for the imperishable quiet at the heart of form.