Silence Quotes

Then the silence came back, that awful silence that seemed to just take over.In that silence I kept hearing what I had said--heard it repeating itself over and over again like a stuck record. I wanted it to stop. I didn't want to say things like that anymore. I was sick of that kind of lying. I wished I could say something real.But the silence was too big.

~ Avi

One must not be afraid of a little silence. Some find silence awkward or oppressive. But a relaxed approach to dialogue will include the welcoming of some silence. It is often a devastating question to ask oneself, but it is sometimes important to ask it - 'In saying what I have in mind will I really improve on the silence?

~ Robert K. Greenleaf

…each found her greatest safety in silence…

~ Jane Austen

What other knowledge will my solitude and muteness bring? What other worlds?

~ Kathy Acker

In the meantime the strike is over, with a remarkably low loss of life. All is quiet, they report, all is quiet.In the deserted harbour there is yet water that laps against the quays. In the dark and silent forest there is a leaf that falls. Behind the polished panelling the white ant eats away the wood. Nothing is ever quiet, except for fools.

~ Alan Paton

When I say I love the silence, I'm not being entirely truthful. What I actually love are the abundant, delicate sounds that amplify when I'm silent. These curious creaks, mutters, and hums compel my imagination.

~ Richelle E. Goodrich

The pale water which goes away along paths of silence.

~ Georges Rodenbach

An even more pointed example of the the power of the silence tabu in libraries occurred in Duluth in 1981. The police were pursuing a fugitive from justice who ran into the public library. Uniformed police surrounded the building, and the library director was notified that only unobtrusive plainclothesmen were entering the building. Their instructions: “When you find him, overpower him. Quietly.” It was done, and only a few people in the crowded building saw a handcuffed man being ushered past the checkout counter. “See,” one librarian remarked quietly to an amazed person, “that’s what happens when you don’t pay your book fines.

~ Ray B. Browne

Son of Krypton!

~ Kirstin Van Dyke

In a state of pseudo-death you restore your substance.

~ Marlene Van Niekerk

Music is a complete evocation – like a smell. It can bring an entire memory and feeling back to you in a rush. Much more complete than even a photograph. You allow yourself a certain visual distance with photos – not music. It envelopes you – there’s no way to escape it. It’s a great test of sensitivity – the degree of reaction to music. I use it all the time. I call it my ‘Music Test.’ People today don’t want to hear the truth. They’re really afraid of tranquility and silence – they’re afraid they might begin to understand their own motivations too well. They keep a steady stream of noise going to protect themselves, to build a wall against the truth. Like African natives, beating on their drums, rattling their gourds, shaking the bells to scare off evil spirits. As long as there’s enough noise, there’s nothing to fear – or hear. But they will listen. Times are changing.

~ Anton Szandor Lavey

Sunset on the water ought to be a quiet and easy time, but I guess some people can't stand a little silence.

~ Carl Hiaasen

Under these circumstances, silence among such a large group of people is an uncomfortable thing to experience. Guilt spreads around even to those who have nothing to feel guilty about. Many held their breath. Or, as I heard later, many did what me and my mum did and closed their eyes. We closed our eyes in a bid to remove ourselves.

~ Lloyd Jones

Your silence creates a vacuum for others to fill The key is to stay present and keep listening. The silence of holding steady is different from the silence of holding back.

~ Ronald A. Heifetz

There was only silence. It was the silence of matter caught in the act and embarrassed. There were no cells moving, and yet there were cells. I could see the shape of the land, how it lay holding silence. Its poise and its stillness were unendurable, like the ring of the silence you hear in your skull when you're little and notice you're living the ring which resumes later in life when you're sick.

~ Annie Dillard

It was a stillness so profound one had to adjust one’s hearing to it.....The silence seemed to be trying to tell him something about itself.

~ Haruki Murakami

Silence fell like a hammer made of feathers. It left holes in the shape of the sound of the sea.

~ Terry Pratchett

I shouted into the phone, but there was no reply. Silence floated up from the receiver like smoke from the mouth of a gun.

~ Haruki Murakami

Silence hung around the corners, draped like spider webs across all surfaces and hanging like smog in the air.

~ Jennifer Perry

Under all speech that is good for anything there lies a silence that is better.

~ Thomas Carlyle

I have a sense of exile from thought, a nostalgia of the quiet room and balanced mind. I am a writer, and there comes a time when that which I write has to belong to me, has to be written alone and in silence, with no one looking over my shoulder, no one telling me a better way to write it. It doesn't have to be great writing, it doesn't even have to be terribly good. It just has to be mine.

~ Raymond Chandler

I am speechless: what can I answer?I put hand on my mouth.I have said too much already,now I will speak no more.

~ Stephen Mitchell

The silence is not suppression; instead, it is all there is.

~ Annie Dillard

In the seventh century, Isaac the Syrian wrote about 'stillness,' which in his writings has been summarized as 'a deliberate denial of the gift of words for the sake of achieving inner silence, in the midst of which a person can hear the presence of God. It is standing unceasingly, silent, and prayerfully before God.

~ Kenneth Bailey

Kyoko sniffs, unable to speak. Sometimes saying nothing means most of all.

~ Sandy Fussell

... isn't breaking a supervillian out of jail a little ... much?

~ Kirstin Van Dyke

Silence beyond being the answer to fools, is sometimes the answer of fools.

~ Prinx Maurice

The closest one person can get to another is through silence.

~ Bohumil Hrabal

I once traveled with a guide who was taking me to Faya. He didn't speak for nine hours. At the end of it he pointed to the horizon and said, 'Faya!' That was a good day.

~ Michael Ondaatje

Only he who knows how to speak can be silent.

~ Jean-Paul Sartre

Around them there was nothing but silence, as if all the world were holding its breath.

~ Philip Pullman

He himself was almost never bored, and there was no man with whom it would have been a greater mistake to suppose that silence meant displeasure.

~ Henry James

Talking is good. It's good to disturb the silence.

~ Marty Rubin

Don't be afraid to talk because in the long run, you will be afraid that you were too silent.

~ Anthony T. Hincks

When once misfortune enters a house, silence is in vain.

~ Maurice Maeterlinck

Silence doesn’t have to be a major pilgrimage into the wilderness in order to find a solitary space. Everyday tasks such as driving around town, folding laundry, preparing food, washing dishes, or taking walks can all provide a measure of solitude each day when approached with the right mindset and a commitment to shut off televisions, computers, tablets, smartphones, radios, and anything else that could interrupt silence.

~ Ed Cyzewski

Celebration toward the east fosters silence. Indeed, there is less temptation for the celebrant to monopolize the conversation. Facing the Lord, he is less tempted to become a professor giving a lesson throughout the Mass, reducing the altar to a podium centered on the microphone instead of the Cross.

~ Robert Sarah

He sometimes halted without saying anything. Either he had finally nothing to say or while having something to say he finally decided not to say it.

~ Samuel Beckett

Silence was my sister's weapon. When people hurt or angered her, she never got loud like Mom or mean and smart-ass like me. Silence was how she fought back. It wasn't passive, or an act of helplessness: it was a cold cruel withering blade, lasting far longer than my mother's rage or my own antagonism, strong enough to make us practically beg for forgiveness every time. Except now her weapon had gone haywire, turned on herself, driven her from her home and her support system and into what-knew-what kind of danger.

~ Sam J. Miller

He feels the word close enough to absorb it,an exorcised silence creating cliffsides to escape to and reverse.

~ Gwen Calvo