Quotes About Silence

that we die, our very humanity slayed, whenever we choose to remain silent in the face of tyranny.

A story that must be told never forgives silence. Speech is the mouth's debt to a story

and I had a great curiosity to talk to the books, as I thought they did; and so to learn how all things had a beginning: for that purpose I have often taken up a book, and have talked to it, and then put my ears to it, when alone, in hopes it would answer me; and I have been very much concerned when I found it remained silent.

I had often seen my master and Dick employed in reading; and I had a great curiosity to talk to the books, as I thought they did; and so to learn how all things had a beginning: for that purpose I have often taken up a book, and have talked to it, and then put my ears to it, when alone, in hopes it would answer me; and I have been very much concerned when I found it remained silent.

Efter midnat, naar epidemien har sejret totalt, og byen med alle sine senge er de søvnsyges hospital, Der kan leves i disse timer inden morgengryet, men ingen tænker på det, alle sover.

Sally is a bully of the worst sort, for she never lays a hand on Bill, never gives her bullying a properly physical manifestation. She beats him with words and body language and selectively brutal silences.

Speaking does harm, sows confusion and weakens things that are obvious. Speaking makes me tremble inside. I don't think I have ever said anything really important in my entire life -- there's a lack of words for the most important things anyway. (I must make a list of missing words -- top of it I'll put a verb that means something in between "I sense" and "I see.")

A thing that is not talked about ceases to exist.

This was how the end must look. No deluge, no rains of fire, no Auschwitz, no comet. This is how the world will look when God has deserted it, whoever he is. Like an abandoned house, everything coated in cosmic dust, muggy and steeped in silence. Everything living will congeal and grow mold in the light that has no pulse and therefore is dead. In this spectral light everything will crumble.

looked out of the window. Dawn was breaking, and idle snowflakes were gradually starting to fill the nothingness. They were falling slowly, weaving their way through the air and spinning on their own axis like feathers.

I felt as if the words I had spoken that day had soiled my tongue and mouth.

This question was so unexpected that I instantly let myself be carried away by memories. They began to sail past my eyes, and typically for memories, everything in them seemed better, finer, and happier than in reality. It's strange, but we didn't say a word.

Ten, kto nie nauczy? si? mówi?, zostanie na zawsze uwi?ziony w pu?apce.

The true use of speech is not so much to express our wants as to conceal them.

Talking is like playing on the harp; there is as much in laying the hands on the strings to stop their vibration as in twanging them to bring out their music.

Alas for those that never sing, But die with all their music in them!

No me agrada esta calma, este silencio muerto, sin carne, puro hueso.

If Christians remain faithful to the message of the resurrection and become truly eucharistic people, they are in society like a forest in the middle of cultivated lands – an unlimited reserve of silence, peace and authentic life that makes possible all the good and lasting creations of history.

is better to keep silent and to be, rather than to speak but not to be. One who truly possesses Christ's words can also hear his silence in order to be perfect … Nothing is hidden from the Lord but our very secrets are close to him. Let us do everything in him who dwells in us so that we may become his temples. Ignatius of Antioch Epistle to the Ephesians, 15,1-3 (SC 10, p. 84)

To progress in thinking about creatures is painful and wearisome. The contemplation of the Holy Trinity is ineffable peace and silence. Evagrius of Pontus Centuries,

When all are seated, the jikijitsu claps the taku (wooden clappers) once, followed by the four successive rings of the small metal bell called inkin at measured intervals. This is the sign of shijo, which means the beginning of samadhi or zazen. In the ensuing period of quietness, the slightest movement of our bodies, even coughing, is forbidden.

After the passage of a given length of time, the jikijitsu again rings his bell once and claps his clappers twice. Then comes a short break of about ten minutes. Sometimes during this break kinhin (meditative walking) takes place in the meditation hall.

Kinhin means walking in the Zen hall after sitting in Zen meditation for some time. We walk meditatively with our hands held against our chests. The closed right hand held lightly against the chest is covered with the left hand, and both of the arms are held up horizontally.

This teaching of O Yomei reminds me of "Kyosho Dofu (Ching-ch'ing Tao-fu) and the voice of rain drops" as told in Article 46 of the Hekigan Roku (Pi-yen Lu).