SILENCE QUOTES III
quotations about silence
A judicious silence is always better than truth spoken without charity.
DE SALES
attributed, Day's Collacon
Silence is the perfectest herald of joy:
I were but little happy, if I could say how much.
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
Much Ado About Nothing
Shhh... Hear that? No? Exactly. That's the sound of a passive-aggressive person who's cheesed off about something. If you were upset with something a friend or family member did, you might say -- and we're just spitballing ideas here -- "I'm upset with something you did." A passive-aggressive person would instead say: [insert your favorite cricket sounds here]. Silence is always a go-to strategy for passive-aggressors and it's not hard to see why. It says nothing at all and yet says volumes. It ostensibly avoids a conflict but in fact provokes one--with the very lack of communication serving as a taunt and a goad. It's thus passive, and yet, um, aggressive.
JEFFREY KLUGER
"7 Signs You're Dealing With a Passive-Aggressive Person", Time, August 30, 2017
Side by side in silence
They pass away the day
So comfortable, so habitual
And so nothing left to say
THE CURE
"39"
On waves of silence I'm lifted
To uttermost heavens of sound
HELEN HUNTINGTON
"From the Cup of Silence"
The voice of the Almighty speaks most profoundly in such things as lives in silence themselves.
CORMAC MCCARTHY
Blood Meridian
A horrid stillness first invades the ear,
And in that silence we the tempest fear.
JOHN DRYDEN
Astraea Redux
Silence is the only language god speaks.
CHARLES SIMIC
Dime-Store Alchemy
There are moments when silence, prolong'd and unbroken,
More expressive may be than all words ever spoken,
It is when the heart has an instinct of what
In the heart of another is passing.
OWEN MEREDITH
Lucile
Go placidly amid the noise and haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence.
MAX EHRMANN
"Desiderata"
Absolute silence leads to sadness. It is the image of death.
JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU
The Reveries of the Solitary Walker
I think silence is the condition you accept as the judgment on your crimes.
DON DELILLO
Underworld
The silence of the people is a lesson for kings.
SOANEN, BISHOP OF SENAX
funeral oration for Louis XV
I drink from the cup of silence
And my long-parched soul revives
Till I'm free from the strain of living,
The pressure of other lives.
HELEN HUNTINGTON
"From the Cup of Silence"
Too often the strong, silent man is silent only because he does not know what to say, and is reputed strong only because he has remained silent.
WINSTON CHURCHILL
Winston S. Churchill: His Complete Speeches
To hear, one must be silent.
URSULA K. LE GUIN
A Wizard of Earthsea
It seems only the old are able to sit next to one another and not say anything and still feel content. The young, brash and impatient, must always break the silence. It is a waste, for silence is pure. Silence is holy. It draws people together because only those who are comfortable with each other can sit without speaking. This is the great paradox.
NICHOLAS SPARKS
The Notebook
You know
There are moments when silence, prolonged and unbroken,
More expressive may be than all words ever spoken.
EDWARD BULWER LYTTON
"Lucile"
You kill me with SILENCE that's your style, girl
You're letting me know this deafening SILENCE,
The only reason that you're in control
It's emotional violence,
I can't breathe now, but I can't let go
You kill me with SILENCE
DURAN DURAN
"You Kill Me With Silence"
There comes in all our lives a time ... when the ears can listen to no music save what the moonlight breathes through the flute of silence.
MARCEL PROUST
Swann's Way