Motivational Quotes

Silence

Silence is the universal refuge, the sequel to all dull discourses and all foolish acts, a balm to our every chagrin, as welcome after satiety as after disappointment; that background which the painter may not daub, be he master or bungler, and which, however awkward a figure we may have made in the foreground, remains ever our inviolable asylum, where no indignity can assail, no personality can disturb us.

- Thoreau, Henry David

Best Quotes about Silence

Silence is foolish if we are wise, but wise if we are foolish.

Colton, Charles Caleb

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

X is work. Y is play. Z is keep your mouth shut.

Dickson, R A

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

Coolidge, Calvin

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

Mcginley, Phyllis

There are grammatical errors even in his silence.

Stanislaw J. Lec

Thoreau, Henry David

Oppression can only survive through silence.

Carmen de Monteflores

Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent.

Wittgenstein, Ludwig

10.

The greatest admiration gives rise not to words, but to silence.

Musonnius

11.

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

Hubbard, Elbert

12.

Not to ask is not be denied.

Dryden, John

13.

I have been breaking silence these twenty-three years and have hardly made a rent in it.

Thoreau, Henry David

14.

Do not the most moving moments of our lives find us all without words?

Marceau, Marcel

15.

'Tis best to be silent in a bad cause.

Ovid

16.

It is better to be silent, and be thought a fool, than to speak and remove all doubt.

Engel, Silvan

17.

It is great wisdom to know how to be silent and to look at neither the remarks, nor the deeds, nor the lives of others.

John of the Cross, St.

18.

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

19.

There is no need to go to India or anywhere else to find peace. You will find that deep place of silence right in your room, your garden or even your bathtub.

Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

20.

A silent mouth is melodious.

Proverb, Irish

21.

Learn to get in touch with the silence within yourself and know that everything in this life has a purpose.

Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

22.

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

Smith, Sydney

23.

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

24.

A man's silence is wonderful to listen to.

Thomas Hardy

25.

Silence is argument carried on by other means.

Guevara, Che

26.

Silence is the true friend that never betrays.

Confucius

27.

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

Abraham Lincoln

28.

Learn to get in touch with silence within yourself, and know that everything in this life has purpose. There are no mistakes, no coincidences, all events are blessings given to us to learn from.

KuBler-Ross, Elisabeth

29.

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

Abraham Lincoln

30.

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

Disraeli, Benjamin

31.

It is more noble by silence to avoid an injury than by argument to overcome it.

Beaumont, Francis

32.

It ain't a bad plan to keep still occasionally even when you know what you're talking about.

Hubbard, Kin

33.

Consider the whale: It never gets into trouble until it comes up and starts spouting.

34.

Their silence is sufficient praise.

Terence

35.

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

O'Malley, Austin

36.

An now the silences come in a single lifetime, in a single year... when species die, leaving a silent space in the world song that can never be filled.

Delint, Charles

37.

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

38.

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

Proverb, Arabian

39.

Well-timed silence is the most commanding expression.

Helprin, Mark

40.

The silent influence of books, is a mighty power in the world; and there is a joy in reading them known only to those who read them with desire and enthusiasm. Silent, passive, and noiseless though they be, they yet set in action countless multitudes, and change the order of nations.

Giles, Henry

41.

He who does not know how to be silent will not know how to speak.

Ausonius

42.

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

Xenocrates of Chalcedon

43.

Let us be silent that we may hear the whispers of the gods.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

44.

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

Seneca

45.

Silence is the ultimate weapon of power.

Gaulle, Charles De

46.

What she doesn't say is just as important as what she does say -- but there's so much more of it. I think from now on I'm going to stick to what she actually does say because I don't have that kind of time.

Katz, Jonathan

47.

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

48.

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

49.

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

50.

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

Young, Brigham