Silence

"He who believes in Allah and the Last Day should either utter good words or better keep silence; and he who believes in Allah and the Last Day should treat his neighbour with kindness and he who believes in Allah and the Last Day should show hospitality to his guest."

"First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—"

"Of what is great one must either be silent or speak with greatness. With greatness — that means cynically and with innocence."

"When we honestly ask ourselves which person in our lives mean the most to us, we often find that it is those who, instead of giving advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with a warm and tender hand. The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate not knowing, not curing, not healing and face with us the reality of our powerlessness, that is a friend who cares."

"I shall halt. Truth does not always Gain if she displays Her face unflinching; and silence is often a man’s wisest counsel."

"I know you'll speak no truth at this time. I've to be guided solely by your silence, your eyes and the inaudible appeals of your heart."

"Be silent always when you doubt your Sense."

"Silence slammed in like a thunderclap."

"In the moment of silence Agnes fancied she could hear the stalactites grow."

"All music is just performances of 4'33" in studios where another band happened to be playing at the time."

"to him who fears only your opposition...silence is consent. And silence where life and liberty is at stake, where by a timely protest we could stay the destroyer's hand, and do not do so, is as criminal as giving actual aid to the oppressor, for it answers his purpose..."

"Move outside the tangle of fear-thinking. Live in silence."

"Silence is an ocean. Speech is a river.When the ocean is searching for you, don't walk into the language-river. Listen to the ocean, and bring your talky business to an end Traditional words are just babbling in that presence, and babbling is a substitute for sight."

"When one intends to move or when one intends to speak, one should first examine one’s own mind and then act appropriately with composure. When one sees one’s mind to be attached or repulsed, then one should neither act nor speak, but remain still like a piece of wood. When my mind is haughty, sarcastic, full of conceit and arrogance, ridiculing, evasive and deceitful, when it is inclined to boast, or when it is contemptuous of others, abusive, and irritable, then I should remain still like a piece of wood. When my mind is averse to the interests of others and seeks my own self-interest, or when it wishes to speak out of a desire for an audience, then I will remain still like a piece of wood. When it is impatient, indolent, timid, impudent, garrulous, or biased in my own favor, then I will remain still like a piece of wood."

"Criticism should not be focused on Nazi Germany alone but extend beyond to include physicians in democratic countries, as well. Physicians outside Germany before the war, in the United States in particular were well aware of the evolving racist thrust of the health care system. They chose to remain silent."

"Be check'd for silence, But never tax'd for speech."

"I'll speak to thee in silence."

"The rest is silence."

"The saying is true "The empty vessel makes the greatest sound.""

"Smooth runs the water where the brook is deep."

"Silence is only commendable In a neat's tongue dried and a maid not vendible."

"Silence is the perfectest herald of joy: I were but little happy, if I could say how much."

"What; gone without a word? Ay, so true love should do: it cannot speak; For truth hath better deeds than words to grace it."

"There was speech in their dumbness, language in their very gesture."

"But my words like silent raindrops fell, and echoed in the wells of silence."

"Do not too hastily conclude that silence is indifference. Indifference is not to care, not to act, not even to think or breathe. Indifference is inhuman and inhumane. Silence, on the other hand, is almost always premeditated, a willful act. Without silence there would be no sound."

"The things you do not have to say make you rich. Saying the things you do not have to say weakens your talk. Hearing the things you do not need to hear dulls your hearing. And the things you know before you hear them, these are you, and this is why you are in the world."

"Expressing not to you; but with you, I've bound my love silently unheard and unseen from anywhere."

"As our bankrupt civilization draws to its close, and as the violence of the powerful against the weak, of the rich against the poor, of the few against the many, becomes more and more apparent, ... to refrain from mentioning it becomes more and more clearly a political act, an act of censorship or cowardice."

"Silence, beautiful voice."

"A still tongue makes a happy life."

"Well-timed silence hath more eloquence than speech."

"It must be understood that the silence referred to by the adjective ‘mystical’ is not external, esoteric silence, intended to conceal secret truths from the ‘uninitiated’, but rather inner silence, which consists in silencing one’s thoughts, however profound they may be, and therefore in detachment, especially from all our supposed knowledge. Detachment is the work of intelligence, which incessantly recognizes the finiteness of its own contents and, at the same time, of the will, which incessantly recognizes in those same contents the presence of egoism, of that amor sui that is truly the root of all evil."

"I have loved quiet in a leafy glade Where boughs embrace above a flowering way, Deep amber pools at sunset where the stray Soft twilight colors stain the willow shade And woodlands where sweet silence dwells."

"To sin by silence, when we should protest, Makes cowards out of men. The human race Has climbed on protest. Had no voice been raised Against injustice, ignorance, and lust, The inquisition yet would serve the law, And guillotines decide our least disputes. The few who dare, must speak and speak again To right the wrongs of many. Speech, thank God, No vested power in this great day and land Can gag or throttle. Press and voice may cry Loud disapproval of existing ills; May criticise oppression and condemn The lawlessness of wealth-protecting laws That let the children and childbearers toil To purchase ease for idle millionaires. Therefore I do protest against the boast Of independence in this mighty land. Call no chain strong, which holds one rusted link. Call no land free, that holds one fettered slave. Until the manacled slim wrists of babes Are loosed to toss in childish sport and glee, Until the mother bears no burden, save The precious one beneath her heart, until God's soil is rescued from the clutch of greed And given back to labor, let no man Call this the land of freedom."

"Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen."

"The best way to describe silence is to say nothing—but what grace!"

"Silence has weight. It’s not just between sounds—it is a sound."

"But silence never shows itself to so great an advantage, as when it is made the reply to calumny and defamation, provided that we give no just occasion for them."

"Alta vendetta D'alto silenzio è figlia."

"Qui tacet, consentire videtur."

"Le silence est l'esprit das sots, Et l'une des vertus du sage."

"Three things are ever silent—Thought, Destiny, and the Grave."

"There was silence deep as death; And the boldest held his breath, For a time."

"Speech is great; but silence is greater."

"Cum tacent clamant."

"And they three passed over the white sands, between the rocks, silent as the shadows."

"Striving to tell his woes, words would not come; For light cares speak, when mighty griefs are dumb."

"Il ne voit que la nuit, n'entend que le silence."

"Silence is the mother of Truth."