He who knows, does not speak. He who speaks, does not know.
Lao TzuSilence is the element in which great things fashion themselves together.
Thomas CarlyleSaying nothing… sometimes says the most.
Emily DickinsonNo traveler, whether a tree lover or not, will ever forget his first walk in a sugar-pine forest. The majestic crowns approaching one another make a glorious canopy, through the feathery arches of which the sunbeams pour, silvering the needles and gilding the stately columns and the ground into a scene of enchantment.
John MuirSilence is more eloquent than words.
Thomas CarlyleEverything that’s created comes out of silence. Your thoughts emerge from the nothingness of silence. Your words come out of this void. Your very essence emerged from emptiness. All creativity requires some stillness.
Wayne DyerMadness is rare in individuals – but in groups, parties, nations, and ages it is the rule.
Friedrich NietzscheBlessed is the man, who having nothing to say, abstains from giving wordy evidence of the fact.
George EliotSilence is as deep as eternity, speech a shallow as time.
Thomas CarlyleAfter silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music.
Aldous HuxleyI think a lot of people, including me, clammed up when a civilian asked about battle, about war. It was fashionable. One of the most impressive ways to tell your war story is to refuse to tell it, you know. Civilians would then have to imagine all kinds of deeds of derring-do.
Kurt VonnegutKeep silence for the most part, and speak only when you must, and then briefly.
EpictetusMeditation is to be aware of every thought and of every feeling, never to say it is right or wrong, but just to watch it and move with it. In that watching, you begin to understand the whole movement of thought and feeling. And out of this awareness comes silence.
Jiddu KrishnamurtiSilence is the sleep that nourishes wisdom.
Francis BaconIt was still quiet in the house, and not a sound was heard from outside, either. Were it not for this silence, my reverie would probably have been disrupted by reminders of daily duties, of getting up and going to school.
Hermann HesseYou are not only responsible for what you say, but also for what you do not say.
Martin LutherThe ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people but the silence over that by the good people.
Martin Luther King, Jr.George is a radio announcer, and when he walks under a bridge… you can’t hear him talk.
Steven WrightSometimes one creates a dynamic impression by saying something, and sometimes one creates as significant an impression by remaining silent.
Dalai LamaHistory will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people.
Martin Luther King, Jr.Silence speaks so much louder than screaming tantrums. Never give anyone an excuse to say that you’re crazy.
Taylor SwiftIn time of war the laws are silent.
Marcus Tullius CiceroDo I dare set forth here the most important, the most useful rule of all education? It is not to save time, but to squander it.
Jean-Jacques RousseauWe need to find God, and he cannot be found in noise and restlessness. God is the friend of silence. See how nature – trees, flowers, grass- grows in silence; see the stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence… We need silence to be able to touch souls.
Mother TeresaHe who does not understand your silence will probably not understand your words.
Elbert HubbardSilence is argument carried out by other means.
Che GuevaraSilence is the virtue of fools.
Francis BaconGreat is truth, but still greater, from a practical point of view, is silence about truth. By simply not mentioning certain subjects… totalitarian propagandists have influenced opinion much more effectively than they could have by the most eloquent denunciations.
Aldous HuxleyThe first rule of business is: Do other men for they would do you.
Charles DickensAt one time in my life, from the time I was seven until I was about 13, I didn’t speak. I only spoke to my brother. The reason I didn’t speak: I had been molested, and I told the name of the molester to my brother who told it to the family.
Maya AngelouWhen the mind is empty, silent, when it is in a state of complete negation – which is not blankness, nor the opposite of being positive, but a totally different state in which all thought has ceased – only then is it possible for that which is unnameable to come into being.
Jiddu KrishnamurtiThe poets have been mysteriously silent on the subject of cheese.
Gilbert K. ChestertonThe urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule.
H. L. MenckenHave you not noticed that love is silence? It may be while holding the hand of another, or looking lovingly at a child, or taking in the beauty of an evening. Love has no past or future, and so it is with this extraordinary state of silence.
Jiddu KrishnamurtiGive thy thoughts no tongue.
William ShakespeareSilence is the mother of truth.
Benjamin DisraeliA gypsy told me I was going to do great things. I was going to make all kinds of money.
Dolly PartonIn the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.
Martin Luther King, Jr.Silence is one of the great arts of conversation.
Marcus Tullius CiceroI think audiences are quite comfortable watching something coming into being.
Brian EnoTen people who speak make more noise than ten thousand who are silent.
Napoleon BonaparteA voice is a human gift; it should be cherished and used, to utter fully human speech as possible. Powerlessness and silence go together.
Margaret AtwoodThe time comes upon every public man when it is best for him to keep his lips closed.
Abraham LincolnSilence is golden when you can’t think of a good answer.
Muhammad AliAll tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent.
Edmund BurkeSpeech is human, silence is divine, yet also brutish and dead: therefore we must learn both arts.
Thomas CarlyleEverything has its wonders, even darkness and silence, and I learn, whatever state I may be in, therein to be content.
Helen KellerNo, I will be the pattern of all patience; I will say nothing.
William ShakespeareThe true genius shudders at incompleteness – and usually prefers silence to saying something which is not everything it should be.
Edgar Allan PoeI am rather inclined to silence.
Abraham LincolnThough silence is not necessarily an admission, it is not a denial, either.
Marcus Tullius CiceroChoose silence of all virtues, for by it you hear other men’s imperfections, and conceal your own.
George Bernard ShawLaws are silent in time of war.
Marcus Tullius CiceroI have learned silence from the talkative, toleration from the intolerant, and kindness from the unkind; yet, strange, I am ungrateful to those teachers.
Khalil GibranThe rule is perfect: in all matters of opinion our adversaries are insane.
Mark TwainSome animals utter a loud cry. Some are silent, and others have a voice, which in some cases may be expressed by a word; in others, it cannot. There are also noisy animals and silent animals, musical and unmusical kinds, but they are mostly noisy about the breeding season.
AristotleI make it a rule never to smoke while I’m sleeping.
Mark TwainNothing strengthens authority so much as silence.
Leonardo da VinciA better world shall emerge based on faith and understanding.
Douglas MacArthurThere are nights when the wolves are silent and only the moon howls.
George Carlin