Quotes About Silence

Earlier that day, former president George W. Bush, who had remained largely silent during Trump's presidency, condemned domestic "extremism" and the "malign forces" in the country. "So much of our politics has become a naked appeal to anger, fear and resentment," he said in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, near where one of four hijacked planes had crashed into a field on September 11. He never mentioned Trump directly.

I think you overestimate the maturity of adults, he wrote me in his final letter, a letter he sent only after I'd broken down and written him first, after a year of silence.

think you overestimate the maturity of adults, he wrote me in his final letter, a letter he sent only after I'd broken down and written him first, after a year of silence. Angry and hurt as I may have been by his departure, his observation was undeniably correct. This slice of truth, offered in the final hour, ended up beginning a new chapter of my adulthood, the one in which I realized that age doesn't necessarily bring anything with it, save itself. The rest is optional.

10. The most I want to do is show you the end of my index finger. Its muteness.

But there is nothing. A high whine of nothing, like the absence of noise when a church bell falls silent.

Two women in a room. One seated, one standing

She will not, she tells herself, be the first to speak. Let him decide what should be said, since he is so skilled with words, since he is so fêted and celebrated for his pretty speeches. She will keep her counsel. He is the one who has caused this problem, this breach in their marriage: He can be the one to address it.

She feels it; he feels it. They know it and they know each other's thoughts and they sense each other's actions and fears. She does not know why this is or where it might lead, but she knows it must remain hidden, and silent as the tongue in his head.

She moves her comb, her shift, her gown next door. She takes up the bed that was once her aunts'. Nothing is said. She leaves her mother and sister to their grief and moves in above the workshop.

thinks, as she lifts the plates, to miss the pain and anguish of one person, if that person keeps quiet, if he keeps it all in, like a bottle stoppered too tightly, the pressure inside building and building, until—what?

I have a theory,' she says, looking far ahead, at where salt meets sky, 'that marriages end not because of something you did say but because of something you didn't. All you have to do now is work out what it is.

There is so much to do in a family of this size, so much to see to, so many people needing so many different things. How easy is it, Agnes thinks, as she lifts the plates, to miss the pain and anguish of one person, if that person keeps quiet, if he keeps it all in, like a bottle stoppered too tightly, the pressure inside building and building, until – what?

There is, she has found, great power to be had in silence.

En aquel momento no se lo conté a nadie, ni a mis amigos ni a mi familia: no encontraba la manera de traducir lo sucedido a gramática y sintaxis.

I could see Mike and James sitting side by side, both of them gazing wordlessly into space. From what I could judge, they shared obsessions that were similar but not identical, a situation which made communion between them unworkable for the present.

To abstain from speaking is regarded as very difficult. It is not possible to say much that is valuable and striking.*

dwells in the silent chamber of the heart of everyone and everything.

Prayer is not asking. It is a longing of the soul. It is daily admission of one's weakness. It is better in prayer to have a heart without words than words without a heart.

My love, I fear the silence of your hands.

Graveyards have the dignity of air, the authority of dust.

I love talking to you, even if I have nothing to say.

Silence has gossiping walls, emptiness slandering emptiness.

Yvette had never talked about her marriage - she was a smart girl, and she knew you had no right to complain about someone you got all the way to the altar with. You made that choice, even if you were a child when you did it, and the marriage vow was sacred.

Yo no le había puesto nombre. No tenía palabras. Creía que si no hablaba no existía. Las cosas que no se nombran se olvidan o desaparecen. Por eso me costaba tanto explicárselo a alguien