Quotes About Silence

Practice in not speaking can at least give us enough control over what we say that our tongues do not "go off" automatically. This discipline provides us with a certain inner distance that gives us time to consider our words fully and the presence of mind to control what we say and when we say it.

Waiting in respectful silence is an essential part of the job and he has developed the capacity to simulate deep calm while experiencing none of it. In his core, Mervyn Glass is a frantic man.

The darkest places in hell are reserved for those who maintain their silence at times of crisis.

Can you keep secrets? Can you know a thing and never say it again?

Love is a private thing. The world does not need to know.

She saved my life...and I've ruined hers. They sat in silence for a full minute, the air between them growing heavy, as if they both wanted to speak, and yet had nothing to say. They were strangers, after all, on a brief and bizarre journey that had just reached a fork in the road, each of them now needing to find seperate paths.

They sat in silence for a full minute, the air between them growing heavy, as if they both wanted to speak, and yet had nothing to say. They were strangers, after all, on a brief and bizarre journey that had just reached a fork in the road, each of them now needing to find seperate paths.

The man now retrieved a linen cloth and stuffed it deep into Katherine's mouth. "Death," he whispered to her, "should be a quiet thing.

Any man can stay sober in a desert, he mused, but only the loyal can sit in an oasis and refuse to part his lips.

At night, this is a heavier world.

the fanatical shouts of the bullies of the world are invariably silenced by the unified voices of decency that rise up to meet them.

Langdon decided not to say another word all evening. Sophie Neveu was clearly a hell of a lot smarter than he was.

We must pass through solitude and difficulty, isolation and silence, to find that enchanted place where we can dance our clumsy dance and sing our sorrowful song. But in that dance, and in that song, the most ancient rites of our conscience fulfill themselves in the awareness of being human. —Pablo Neruda, Toward the Splendid City

when profound questions are asked of the heart, the answers are best kept to yourself.

The silence stretched. Finally Al added one more sentence that I have been thinking about ever since. 'And if you did it again,' he said, 'we would have to kill you again.' We stared at each other for some time after that; each convinced, I am sure, that the other was a total idiot.

For a few minutes I stood alone in her chambers, appreciating the light and silence and art. There was a van Gogh on one of the walls, worth more than most planets could pay. It was a painting of the artist's room at Arles. Madness is not a new invention.

Did you see any of us there?" Kassad said nothing for more than a minute. The soft sounds of the river and the ship's rigging suddenly seemed very loud. Finally Kassad took a breath. "Yes." Silence stretched again. Brawne Lamia broke it. "Will you tell us who?" "No.

was being greeted by a silent, smiling band of bald, retarded children.

In the beginning was the Word. In the end…past honor, past life, past caring… In the end will be the Word.

late at night once

If it wasn't thought, it wasn't so. If it wasn't spoken, it hadn't happened. Except that secrets, particularly the most deeply held ones, have a way of leaching into everything surrounding them.

husband; and so it may be supposed at first sight what a kind of life I led with him. However, I did as well as I could, and held my tongue, which was the only victory I gained over him; for when he would talk after his own empty rattling way with me, and I would not answer, or enter into discourse with him on the point he was upon, he would rise up in the greatest passion imaginable, and go away, which was the cheapest way I had to be delivered.

Silence is another barometer of timidity. A timid silence in the face of novelty or a perceived threat is a sign of the activity of a neural circuit running between the forebrain, the amygdala, and nearby limbic structures that control the ability to vocalize. These same circuits make us choke up under stress. These sensitive children are at high risk for developing an anxiety disorder such as panic attacks, starting as early as sixth or seventh grade.

And I almost said I love you. Instead I said nothing and you said nothing.