Motivational Quotes

Silence

The man who does not understand your silence will probably not understand your words.

- Hubbard, Elbert

Best Quotes about Silence

I often regret that I have spoken; never that I have been silent.

Syrus, Publilius

Silence is never more golden than when you hold it long enough to get all the facts before you speak.

Silence is one of the hardest arguments to refute.

Josh Billings

The silent dog is the first to bite.

Proverb

If you don't say anything, you won't be called on to repeat it.

Coolidge, Calvin

A good word is an easy obligation; but not to speak ill, requires only our silence, which costs nothing.

John Tillotson

The Pause; that impressive silence, that eloquent silence, that geometrically progressive silence which often achieves a desired effect where no combination of words, however so felicitous, could accomplish it.

Twain, Mark

Silence is golden when you can't think of a good answer.

Muhammad Ali

Soon silence will have passed into legend. Man has turned his back on silence. Day after day he invents machines and devices that increase noise and distract humanity from the essence of life, contemplation, meditation. Tooting, howling, screeching, booming, crashing, whistling, grinding, and trilling bolster his ego. His anxiety subsides. His inhuman void spreads on like a gray vegetation.

Arp, Jean

10.

The whisper of a pretty girl can be heard further than the roar of a lion.

Proverb, Arabian

11.

Silence is the virtue of fools.

Sir Francis Bacon

12.

Well-timed silence is the most commanding expression.

Helprin, Mark

13.

He had occasional flashes of silence that made his conversation perfectly delightful.

Smith, Sydney

14.

Even a fool, when he holdeth his peace, is counted wise: and he that shutteth his lips is esteemed a man of understanding. [Proverbs 17:28]

Bible

15.

If you keep your mouth shut you will never put your foot in it.

O'Malley, Austin

16.

Silence is as full of potential wisdom and wit as the unshown marble of great sculpture. The silent bear no witness against themselves.

Huxley, Aldous

17.

Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent.

Wittgenstein, Ludwig

18.

Their silence is sufficient praise.

Terence

19.

There's nothing wrong with having nothing to say -- unless you insist on saying it.

20.

Silence is argument carried on by other means.

Guevara, Che

21.

True silence is the rest of the mind; it is to the spirit what sleep is to the body, nourishment and refreshment.

William Penn

22.

'Tis better to be silent and be thought a fool, than to speak and remove all doubt.

Abraham Lincoln

23.

Words can sting like anything, but silence breaks the heart.

Mcginley, Phyllis

24.

And when he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour. [New Testament]

Bible

25.

It is a great thing to know the season for speech and the season for silence.

Seneca

26.

The most profound statements are often said in silence.

Lynn Johnston

27.

Silence is one of the great arts of conversation, as allowed by Cicero himself, who says,'there is not only an art, but an eloquence in it.'A well bred woman may easily and effectually promote the most useful and elegant conversation without speaking a word. The modes of speech are scarcely more variable than the modes of silence.

Tom Blair

28.

An inability to stay quiet is one of the most conspicuous failings of mankind.

Bagehot, Walter

29.

There are times when silence has the loudest voice.

Brownlow, Leroy

30.

Those that are silent profess consent.

31.

I have often regretted my speech, never my silence.

Publilius Syrus

32.

There are grammatical errors even in his silence.

Stanislaw J. Lec

33.

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

William Shakespeare

34.

Silence is more musical than any song.

Christina Rossetti

35.

I don't know whether to keep silent and let people think I am ignorant or open my mouth and release all doubts.

36.

I went down with the ship but I kept my mouth shut so I didn't drown like the rest of them.

37.

Silence is the perfectos herald of joy. I were but little happy if I could say how much.

Shakespeare, William

38.

A silent mouth is melodious.

Proverb, Irish

39.

When the eagles are silent the parrots begin to jabber.

Churchill, Winston

40.

Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.

Abraham Lincoln

41.

Speech is often barren; but silence also does not necessarily brood over a full nest. Your still fowl, blinking at you without remark, may all the while be sitting on one addled egg; and when it takes to cackling will have nothing to announce but that addled delusion.

Eliot, George

42.

Well-timed silence hath more eloquence than speech.

Martin Fraquhar Tupper

43.

A wise old owl sat on an oak; The more he saw the less he spoke; The less he spoke the more he heard; Why aren't we like that wise old bird?

Richards, Edward Hersey

44.

Silence may be golden, but can you think of a better way to entertain someone than to listen to him?

Young, Brigham

45.

The man who does not understand your silence will probably not understand your words.

Hubbard, Elbert

46.

Silence is the great teacher, and to learn its lessons you must pay attention to it. There is no substitute for the creative inspiration, knowledge, and stability that come from knowing how to contact your core of inner silence. The great Sufi poet Rumi wrote, Only let the moving waters calm down, and the sun and moon will be reflected on the surface of your being.

Chopra, Deepak

47.

I have often repented speaking, but never of holding my tongue.

Xenocrates of Chalcedon

48.

When little is done, little is said; silence is the mother of truth.

Disraeli, Benjamin

49.

It takes more time and effort and delicacy to learn the silence of a people than to learn its sounds. Some people have a special gift for this. Perhaps this explains why some missionaries, notwithstanding their efforts, never come to speak properly, to communicate delicately through silences. Although they speak with the accent of natives they remain forever thousands of miles away. The learning of the grammar of silence is an art much more difficult to learn than the grammar of sounds.

Illich, Ivan

50.

Sometimes silence is not golden -- just yellow.