Silence Quotes

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In those days, Christmas still retained a certain aura of magic and mystery. The powdery light of winter, the hopeful expressions of people who lived among shadows and silence, lent that setting a slight air of promise in which at least children and those who had learned the art of forgetting could still believe.

Carlos Ruiz Zafón

I have been breaking silence these twenty-three years and have hardly made a rent in it.

Henry David Thoreau

The fruit of silence is prayer; the fruit of prayer is faith; the fruit of faith is love; the fruit of love is service; the fruit of service is peace.

In human intercourse the tragedy begins, not when there is misunderstanding about words, but when silence is not understood.

Henry David Thoreau

What kind of times are they, when A talk about trees is almost a crime Because it implies silence about so many horrors?

In the silence of our hearts, God speaks of His love; with our silence, we allow Jesus to love us.

Silence came before creation, and the heavens were spread without a word

When he saw her sitting there all alone, so young, and good, and beautiful, and kind to him; and heard her thrilling voice, so natural and sweet, and such a golden link between him and all his life's love and happiness, rising out of the silence; he turned his face away, and hid his tears.

Charles Dickens

Tried myself in the school of affliction, by the loss of every form of connection which can rive the human heart, I know well, and feel what you have lost, what you have suffered, are suffering, and have yet to endure. The same trials have taught me that for ills so immeasurable, time and silence are the only medicines. I will not, therefore, by useless condolences, open afresh the sluices of your grief, nor, although mingling sincerely my tears with yours, will I say a word more where words are vain.

Thomas Jefferson

Everything comes and goes. To-day in joy, to-morrow in sorrow. We advance, we retreat, we struggle; then, the eternal and profound silence of death!

When I consider the short duration of my life, swallowed up in the eternity before and after, the small space which I fill, or even can see, engulfed in the infinite immensity of spaces whereof I know nothing, and which know nothing of me, I am terrified, and wonder that I am here rather than there, for there is no reason why here rather than there, or now rather than then. Who has set me here? By whose order and design have this place and time been destined for me?—Memoria hospitis unius diei prætereuntis.
It is not well to be too much at liberty. It is not well to have all we want.
How many kingdoms know nothing of us!
The eternal silence of these infinite spaces alarms me.

The beautiful is as useful as the useful." He added after a moment's silence, "Perhaps more so.

Only when you drink from the river of silence shall you indeed sing.

Human use, population, and technology have reached that certain stage where mother Earth no longer accepts our presence with silence.

Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama

Into the void of silence, into the empty space of nothing, the joy of life is unfurled.

Though silence is not necessarily an admission, it is not a denial, either.

The eternal silence of these infinite spaces [the heavens] terrifies me.

Society turns away from the aged worker as though he belonged to another species. That is why the whole question is buried in a conspiracy of silence. Old age exposes the failure of our entire civilization.

Simone de Beauvoir

Love thyself last: cherish those hearts that hate thee; Corruption wins not more than honesty. Still in thy right hand carry gentle peace, To silence envious tongues: be just, and fear not. Let all the ends thou aim'st at be thy country's, Thy God's, and truth's; then if thou fall'st, O Cromwell! Thou fall'st a blessed martyr!

William Shakespeare

I have learned now that while those who speak about one's miseries usually hurt, those who keep silence hurt more.

Everything falls and is effaced. A few feet under the ground reigns so profound a silence, and yet, so much tumult on the surface!

There was a deep silence, only scraped on its surfaces by the faint quiver of empty seed-plumes, and broken grass-blades trembling in small air-movements they could not feel. 'Not a bird!' said Sam mournfully. 'No, no birds,' said Gollum. 'Nice birds!' He licked his teeth. 'No birds here. There are snakeses, wormses, things in the pools. Lots of things, lots of nasty things. No birds,' he ended sadly. Sam looked at him with distaste.

J. R. R. Tolkien

And what happened next?
Silence happened next. God, it was beautiful.

My grief lies all within,
And these external manners of lament
Are merely shadows to the unseen grief
That swells with silence in the tortured soul.

William Shakespeare

Silence is a solvent that destroys personality, and gives us leave to be great and universal.

Ralph Waldo Emerson