A finely tempered nature longs to escape from his noisy cramped surroundings into the silence of the high mountains where the eye ranges freely through the still pure air and fondly traces out the restful contours apparently built for eternity.

— Albert Einstein

Absolute silence leads to sadness. It is the image of death.

— Jean-Jacques Rousseau

After silence that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music.

— Aldous Huxley

Aloneness, silence, darkness, sleep and death touch us too deeply to allow us to forget the mystery of the absolute.

— Edward J. Farrell, Surprised by the Spirit

Am I afraid that if I look too closely I will see ordinary human beings? 

— Dan Bar-On, Legacy of Silence

Answer sides with ideas, but answer the person with the person. Then often the heart’s true response is silence.

— Paul Tournier, The Meaning of Persons

Are we filling up our moments and our days and our lives with constant activity and stimulation in order to avoid the challenges of silence and stillness?

— Chuang Tzu, The Tale of the Useless Old Tree

Do not smother this moment under vain words.

— Rabindranath Tagore, Vaishnava Songs

Don’t be sorry. Be quiet.

— James Follett, Blake’s 7: Stardrive

Even a silent wild goose keeps to the flock.

— Lao She, Rickshaw Boy

Everybody’s silence is different

Babe Simple, Everybody’s Silence is Different

I know there is sadness in silence, but can I also find comfort?

— Brother Them

If you think my silence is weakness, you mistake me.

— Terry Nation, Blake’s 7: Deliverance

In her silence you were welcome and belonged. All you had to bring was a silence of your own.

— Terry Pratchett, The Wee Free Men

In reality, silence is almost nonexistent.

— Robert Lawrence Smith, A Quaker Book of Wisdom

Silence is as common as the air we breathe.

— Robert Lawrence Smith, A Quaker Book of Wisdom

In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.

— Martin Luther King Jr

Is not most talking a crazed defense of a crumbling fort?

— Hafiz, Silence

It is said that the opposite of noise is silence. This isn’t true. Silence is only the absence of noise. 

— Terry Pratchett, The Light Fantastic

It is silence that makes listening possible.

— Kathleen Norris, Dakota

Let your speech be better than silence, or be silent.

— Dionysus The Elder

Listening is surely a prerequisite for silence. 

— Kathleen Norris, Amazing Grace

Nothing’s louder than the end of a song that’s always been there.

— Terry Pratchett, The Wee Free Men

Our aversion to solitude is really an aversion to boredom.

— Zat Rana, The Most Important Skill Nobody Taught You

Out of the cleansing silence so much begins.

— Robert Lawrence Smith, A Quaker Book of Wisdom

People seek to exorcise silence.

— Andrei Makine, Dreams of my Russian Summers

Seldom those who are silent make mistakes.

— Neil Gaiman, Norse Mythology

Sex is a mystery, like faith, or love, and deserves to have the glow of silence around it.

— Kathleen Norris, Dakota

Silence can mean so many things.

— Vandana Singh, Sailing the Antarsa

Silence is always silence.

— Joe Gabaef

Silence is an answer that begs three more questions.

— Terry Pratchett, Carpe Jugulum

Silence is God’s gift to our minds.

— Robert Lawrence Smith, A Quaker Book of Wisdom

Silence is not passive.

— Kathleen Norris, Dakota

People speak because they are afraid of silence.

— Andrei Makine, Dreams of my Russian Summers

Silence is the lie of the good man or the coward.

— Kent Nerburn, Neither Wolf nor Dog

Silence is the perfectest heralt of joy; I were but little happy, if I could say how much!

— William Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing

Silence is the virtue of a fool.

— Sir Francis Bacon

Silence reminds me to take my soul wherever I go. 

— a North Dakota grade school girl, Amazing Grace

Silence. Even speaking the word seems to violate it’s meaning.

— Robert Lawrence Smith, A Quaker Book of Wisdom

Solitude is a good place to visit but a poor place to stay.

— Josh Billings

Sometimes my greatest accomplishment is just keeping my mouth shut.

— A.A. Milne

Sometimes silence is the only sound.

— Nickel Creek, Hanging by a Thread

Sustained silence is too much to bear.

— Belden C. Lane, The Solace of Fierce Landscapes

That which is most worth shouting from the rooftops must be tested by inner silence first.

— Gareth Higgins, The Porch #78

The “code of silence” is not a sign of confidence, but of despair. 

— Doug Frank, A Gentler God

The day, with the noise of this little earth, drowns the silence of all worlds.

— Rabindranath Tagore, Stray Birds

The language of truth can often be heard in silence if only we know how to listen.

— Robert Lawrence Smith, A Quaker Book of Wisdom

The rampart of silence is not the surest means of self-defense.

— Rabindranath Tagore, The Fugitive Gold

The silence between the notes is what makes the music.

— Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

The Sirens have a still more fatal weapon than their song, namely their silence.

— Franz Kafka

The spoken word is silver but the unspoken is golden.

— Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace

The stillness will ripen its own music in the dark.

— Rabindranath Tagore, Vaishnava Songs

The true can afford to be quiet, and finds silence to be its wisdom.

— C.H. Spurgeon, Morning and Evening

The wildest, most dangerous trails are always the ones within. 

— Belden C. Lane, The Solace of Fierce Landscapes

The words of the prophets are written on the subway walls and tenement halls.

— Paul Simon, The Sounds of Silence

There is harmony in the silence.

— Chris B

To live communally in silence is to admit a new power into your life.

— Kathleen Norris, Dakota

True friendship comes when silence between two people is comfortable.

— Dave Tyson Gentry

Wash thy soul with silence.

— Rabindranath Tagore, Stray Birds

We can in some degree be conscious of [God] in silence, but we cannot in discourse unfold Him as He is.

— Novatian, The Trinity

We turned silence into something to share.

— Terry Pratchett, The Wee Free Men

We were stained by dew, and shamed into pettiness by the innumerable silences of stars.

— T. E. Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom

What shape is your silence?

— Brother Them

What we cannot speak about we must pass over in silence.

— Ludwig Wittgenstein, Tractacus Logico-Philosophicus

When something important is going on, silence is a lie.

— A.M. Rosenthal, NY Times 10/8/91 RE: AIDS

When you are lonely, make a friend of loneliness.

— Vandana Singh, RefSailing the Antarsaerence

Who we really are is found in the silence.

— Marshall Davis, Meeting God in the Pandemic

Why bother to make music when the silence and wind are so much larger?

— Anthony Doerr, All the Light We Cannot See

Wisdom begins in silence.

— Robert Lawrence Smith, A Quaker Book of Wisdom

Wisdom’s self oft seeks to sweet retired solitude, Where, with her best nurse Contemplation, She plumes her feathers, and lets grow her wings.

— John Milton, Comus

Without silence words lose their meaning.

— Henri Nouwen, Out of Solitude

You are not the voice that all things utter, nor is there eternal silence in the places where you cannot come.

— C.S.Lewis, Perelandra