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