quotations about silence
Often silence is a powerful weapon. If we only knew how valiantly it could serve us in defense we should use it more. Under abuse or attack it may be the sign of guilt; but it may also be a proof of innocence and an unmistakable evidence of nobility.
JOHN DANIEL BARRY
"Silence", Reactions and Other Essays
Here may be the real secret of silence. It may lie in the quality of impression that we receive in our consciousness. If we allow ourselves to be impressed by ugly things, by thoughts of strife and bitterness and hate, there is no silence for us. But if we receive only impressions of beauty and love, then we need never be afraid. In ourselves we shall find the companionship of peace. We shall be constantly solaced with silence.
JOHN DANIEL BARRY
"Silence", Reactions and Other Essays Discussing Those States of Feeling and Attitude of Mind That Find Expression In Our Individual Qualities
Many a fine sermon doth Nature preach on the ever-new, forever-transgressed text of silence. It is not the roaring thunder that smites, but the silent lightning; and gravity, which bindeth worlds together and keepeth them from falling asunder, is ever silent. Prettily, too, doth the silent snow cover the ground, and make it like unto a table spread for a feast: unlike the noisy rain, which, after making a goodly number of puddles, quickly runneth off.
IVAN PANIN
Thoughts
There was speech in their dumbness, language in their very gesture.
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
The Winter's Tale
There is a silence where no sound may be,
In the cold grave--under the deep, deep sea,
Or in wide desert where no life is found,
Which hath been mute, and still must sleep profound.
THOMAS HOOD
"Silence"
To women silence is the best ornament.
SOPHOCLES
Ajax
In positions of power, silence is not an option.
MAGNUS LINKLATER
"In positions of power, silence is not an option", The Times, September 3, 2017
If silence is golden like they say it be
If silence is golden then how rich I must be
LYNN ANDERSON
"If Silence Is Golden"
What scientists have discovered is that silence allows an area of the brain, called the hippocampus, to do what it does best. And since the hippocampus is where our memories are stored and where we process our emotions ... it is critical to learning. Silence gives this really important part of the brain the opportunity to process, consolidate and strengthen itself.
JUSTIN COULSON
The Advertiser, August 29, 2017
There are unfortunates who never realize the beauty of silence, the restless ones. Wherever they are they destroy it. They chronically feel an incessant desire to fill up all the crevices of time with sound. They contribute to the vast sum of disease in the world. They are themselves diseased. They lack one of the most precious blessings of health, balance of qualities that give poise, expressing itself in love of peace, in silence.
JOHN DANIEL BARRY
"Silence", Reactions and Other Essays
There is likewise a reward for faithful silence.
HORACE
Carmina
Silence on the radio ... I don't know how that works.
GARRISON KEILLOR
A Prairie Home Companion, 2006
Silence is the safety zone of conversation.
ARNOLD H. GLASOW
attributed, Reader's Digest, 1975
Silence is true wisdom's reply.
ANONYMOUS
Silence is golden, so they say. Except that silence, in a moral dilemma, represents complicity, as it does in a general legal -- or in a criminal -- matter. We are thus, presuming that we are moral beings, faced with a binary choice: remain silent or speak out. Each choice has consequences, and the path followed, its own implications.
ALAIN TSCHUDIN
"When silence is not golden", News 24, August 6, 2017
Silence has many beauties.
SOPHOCLES
fragment, The Sons of Aleus
But my words like silent raindrops fell, and echoed in the wells of silence.
PAUL SIMON
The Sound of Silence
Oh Mary of silence
You pick my heart with a smile
Oh sweet Mary
Come inside for a while
Help me get a hold on you
MAZZY STAR
"Mary of Silence"
Silence is silence -- though it may speak volumes.
JOHN MCTERNAN
"Why Big Ben's silence upsets so many Brits", CNN, August 21, 2017
If all the world were music,
Our hearts would often long
For one sweet strain of silence.
To break the endless song.
HENRY VAN DYKE
"If All the Skies"