quotations about silence
The true genius shudders at incompleteness -- imperfection -- and usually prefers silence to saying the something which is not everything that should be said.
EDGAR ALLAN POE
Marginalia
Great hearts are free of either want or wish;
They may be proud and richly clothe themselves
In lofty, burdenless, mysterious Silence.
CARMEN SYLVA
"Out of the Deep"
I love your silences, they are like mine.
ANAIS NIN
Under a Glass Bell
Well-timed silence is the most commanding expression.
MARK HELPRIN
attributed, Quotable Quotes
Silence is like nightfall. Objects are lost in it insensibly.
MADAME SWETCHINE
"Airelles", The Writings of Madame Swetchine
Three things are ever silent--Thought, Destiny, and the Grave.
EDWARD BULWER-LYTTON
Harold
There are haunters of the silence, ghosts that hold the heart and brain.
MADISON CAWEIN
Haunters of the Silence
I have often repented speaking, but never of holding my tongue.
XENOCRATES
attributed, The Concise Columbia Dictionary of Quotations
When two have met, and caught in sudden gleams
Life's full completeness measured each in each,
There is no silence evermore; what seems
So, verily is the very gold of speech.
CLARA MARCELLE FARRAR GREENE
"Silence"
To which Silence of course made no reply, letting him hear what he had said and feel its foolishness thoroughly.
URSULA K. LE GUIN
Tales from Earthsea
Silence is the genius of fools and one of the virtues of the wise.
BERNARD DE BONNARD
attributed, Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations
Silence is one of the hardest kinds of arguments to refute.
H. W. SHAW
attributed, Day's Collacon
Deep vengeance is the daughter of deep silence.
VITTORIO ALFIERI
La Congiura de' Pazzi
Have you ever heard the wonderful silence just before the dawn? Or the quiet and calm just as a storm ends? Or perhaps you know the silence when you haven't the answer to a question you've been asked, or the hush of a country road at night, or the expectant pause of a room full of people when someone is just about to speak, or, most beautiful of all, the moment after the door closes and you're alone in the whole house? Each one is different, you know, and all very beautiful if you listen carefully.
NORTON JUSTER
The Phantom Tollbooth
I decided it is better to scream. Silence is the real crime against humanity.
NADEZHDA MANDELSTAM
Hope Against Hope
There is a silence, the child of love, which expresses everything, and proclaims more loudly than the tongue is able to do; there are movements that are involuntary proofs of what the soul feels.
VITTORIO ALFIERI
attributed, Forty Thousand Quotations, Prose and Poetical
There are some things best contemplated in silence. Their proportions are so vast that speech cannot get around them.
CHRISTIAN NESTELL BOVEE
Intuitions and Summaries of Thought
To have command of silence is to secure a rich possession, like an independent estate. Happiest are those who can enjoy silence for long stretches. When they are mentally tired or depressed they can go into their silence and find refreshment. For days at a time they can be by themselves and rest. They can leave the turbulent city and escape into the country and abandon themselves to the wholesome influences of nature. They are not at the mercy of the need for companionship, the slaves of others. If we all knew how to be silent, deeply, wholesomely silent, we should have a panacea.
JOHN DANIEL BARRY
"Silence", Reactions and Other Essays
Silence often enables us to see other people's imperfections, and helps us to conceal our own, but people with whom we associate might reasonably suspect us of emptiness if we indulge our inclination for silence on all occasions.
WALTER MATTHEWS
"Silence and Concentration", Human Life from Many Angles
Down through the starry intervals,
Upon this weary-laden world,
How soft the soul of Silence falls!
How deep the spell wherewith she thralls,
How wide her mantle is unfurled.
MARY CLEMMER AMES
"Silence"