Be Silent Quotes

Yes, my mind was wandering. I wished I were there with someone who could bring peace to my heart someone with whom I could spend a little time without being afraid that i would lose him the next day. With that reassurance, the time would pass more slowly. We could be silent for a while because we'd know we had the rest of our lives together for conversation. I wouldn't have to worry about serious matters, about difficult decisions and hard words.
- Paulo Coelho

It took me quite a long time to develop a voice, and now that I have it, I am not going to be silent.
- Madeleine Albright

At times I believed that the last page of my book and the last page of my life were one and the same, that when my book ended I'd end, a great wind would sweep through my rooms carrying the pages away, and when the air cleared of all those fluttering white sheets the room would be silent, the chair where I sat empty.
- Nicole Krauss

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

maybe silent hurting is the new Mid-Western love
- Daniel Bailey

what is the matter with me? Am I too particular? I don't want to be married just to be married. I can't think of anything lonelier than spending the rest of my life with someone I can't talk to, or worse, someone I can't be silent with.
- Mary Ann Shaffer

I don't want to be married just to be married. I can't think of anything lonelier than spending the rest of my life with someone I can't talk to, or worse, someone I can't be silent with.
- Mary Ann Shaffer

Know then, proud man, what a paradox you are to yourself. Be humble, impotent reason! Be silent, feeble nature! Learn that man infinitely transcends man, hear from your master your true condition, which is unknown to you.
- Blaise Pascal

Not one person in a hundred knows how to be silent and listen, no, nor even to conceive what such a thing means. Yet only then can you detect, beyond the fatuous clamour, the silence of which the universe is made.
- Samuel Beckett

Yes, in my life, since we must call it so, there were three things, the inability to speak, the inability to be silent, and solitude, that's what I've had to make the best of
- Samuel Beckett

The fact would seem to be, if in my situation one may speak of facts, not only that I shall have to speak of things of which I cannot speak, but also, which is even more interesting, but also that I, which is if possible even more interesting, that I shall have to, I forget, no matter. And at the same time I am obliged to speak. I shall never be silent. Never.
- Samuel Beckett

I use the words you taught me. If they don't mean anything any more, teach me others. Or let me be silent.
- Samuel Beckett

I love order. It's my dream. A world where all would be silent and still, and each thing in its last place, under the last dust.
- Samuel Beckett

Never be silent with persons you love and distrust," Mr. Carpenter had said once. "Silence betrays.
- L M Montgomery

The chronic kicker, even the most violent critic, will frequently soften and be subdued in the presence of a patient, sympathetic listener a listener who will be silent while the irate fault-finder dilates like a king cobra and spews the poison out of his system.
- Dale Carnegie

That truth should be silent I had almost forgot. (Enobarbus)
- William Shakespeare

I would rather be attacked than unnoticed. For the worst thing you can do to an author is to be silent as to his works.
- Samuel Johnson

To be among people one loves, that's sufficient; to dream, to speak to them, to be silent among them, to think of indifferent things; but among them, everything is equal.
- Jean De La Bruyere

Actually, I do happen to resemble a hallucination. Kindly note my silhouette in the moonlight." The cat climbed into the shaft of moonlight and wanted to keep talking but was asked to be quiet. "Very well, I shall be silent," he replied, "I shall be a silent hallucination.
- Mikhail Bulgakov

It is far better to be silent than merely to increase the quantity of bad books.
- Voltaire

The Greens have every right to run, that's what democracy is, and they should argue their point by saying how they think people should vote, not by telling us to be silent.
- Peter Camejo

The worm hissed. "You said it couldn't see!" shouted Oates, forgetting Umber's instruction to be silent. He shook a fist. "We all heard it, Umber! You specifically said, it couldn't see!"
"I know-isn't it wonderful to learn something new?" Umber laughed.
- P W Catanese

Washington once advised his adopted grandson that where there is no occasion for expressing an opinion, it is best to be silent. For there is nothing more certain than that it is at all times more easy to make enemies than friends.
- Ron Chernow

Let us be silent, that we may hear the whispers of the gods.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

I try to be as honest about what I see and to speak rather than be silent, especially if it means I can save lives, or serve humanity.
- Sandra Cisneros

Thy soul shall find itself alone
'Mid dark thoughts of the gray tombstone
Not one, of all the crowd, to pry
Into thine hour of secrecy.
Be silent in that solitude,
Which is not lonelinessfor then
The spirits of the dead who stood
In life before thee are again
In death around theeand their will
Shall overshadow thee: be still.
- Edgar Allan Poe

For now she need not think of anybody. She coud be herself, by herself. And that was what now she often felt the need of - to think; well not even to think. To be silent; to be alone. All the being and the doing, expansive, glittering, vocal, evaporated; and one shrunk, with a sense of solemnity, to being oneself, a wedge-shaped core of darkness, something invisible to others... and this self having shed its attachments was free for the strangest adventures.
- Virginia Woolf

--children never forget. For this reason, it was so important what one said, and what one did, and it was a relief when they went bed. For now she need not think about anybody. She could be herself, by herself. And that was what now she often felt the need of--to think; well, not even to think. To be silent; to be alone.
- Virginia Woolf

To be silent; to be alone. All the being and the doing, expansive, glittering, vocal, evaporated; and one shrunk, with a sense of solemnity, to being oneself, a wedge-shaped core of darkness, something invisible to others.
- Virginia Woolf

Two people in love, alone, isolated from the world, that's very beautiful. But what would they nourish their intimate talk with? However contemptible the world may be, they still need it to be able to talk together.'
'They could be silent.'
'Like those two, at the next table?' Jean Marc laughed. 'Oh, no, no love can survive muteness.
- Milan Kundera

To hear, one must be silent.
- Ursula K Le Guin

To be silent the whole day long, see no newspaper, hear no radio, listen to no gossip, be thoroughly and completely lazy, thoroughly and completely indifferent to the fate of the world is the finest medicine a man can give himself.
- Henry Miller

The greatest purveyor of violence in the world : My own Government, I can not be Silent.
- Martin Luther King Jr

Preach not to others what they should eat, but eat as becomes you and be silent.
- Epictetus

For far more marvelous is the truth than any artists of the past imagined it. Why do the poets of the present not speak of it? What men are poets who can speak of Jupiter if he were a man, but if he is an immense spinning sphere of methane and ammonia must be silent?
- Richard P Feynman

Great joy, especially after a sudden change of circumstances, is apt to be silent, and dwells rather in the heart than on the tongue.
- Henry Fielding

Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to be silent.
- Victor Hugo

Whoever has received knowledge
and eloquence in speech from God
should not be silent or secretive
but demonstrate it willingly.
When a great good is widely heard of,
then, and only then, does it bloom,
and when that good is praised by man,
it has spread its blossoms.
- Marie De France

...and suddenly, without the slightest volition on my part, there was the most crashing discharge of wind, like the report of a mortar. My horse started; Cardigan jumped in his saddle, glaring at me.....Be Silent! snaps he, and he must have been in a highly nervous condition himself, otherwise he would never have added, in a hoarse whipser: Can you not contain yourself, you disgusting fellow?--Flashman at the start of the Charge of the Light Brigade.
- George Macdonald Fraser

Observe the wonders as they occur around you.
Don't claim them. Feel the artistry moving through and be silent.
- Kahlil Gibran

our collective participation on the Jan25 is the beginning of the end-- the end of silence, acceptance, and submission to all that is happening in our country, and the beginning of a new page of coming forward and demanding our rights. Jan25 is not a revolution in the sense of a coup, but rather a revolution against our government to let them know that we have taken interest in one another's problems and that we shall reclaim all our rights and will not be silent anymore.
- Wael Ghonim

There are two kinds of artists in this world; those that work because the spirit is in them, and they cannot be silent if they would, and those that speak from a conscientious desire to make apparent to others the beauty that has awakened their own admiration.
- Anna Katharine Green

Although your knowledge is weak and small, you need not be silent: since you cannot be judges be at least witnesses.
- Franz Grillparzer

Journalism can never be silent: that is its greatest virtue and its greatest fault. It must speak, and speak immediately, while the echoes of wonder, the claims of triumph and the signs of horror are still in the air.
- Henry Anatole Grunwald

I cannot be silent when facing these evils against women and children.
- Chen Guangcheng

I speak as I must and cannot be silent.
- Joanne Harris

Christ asks for a home in your soul, where he can be at rest with you, where he can talk easily to you, where you and he, alone together, can laugh and be silent and be delighted with one another.
- Caryll Houselander

It's better to be silent than to be a fool.
- Harper Lee

Speak for yourself and from yourself, or be silent.
- George Henry Lewes

Be still, and know that I am God'. We must not interpret that 'Be still' in a sentimental manner. Some regard it as a kind of exhortation to us to be silent; but it is nothing of the sort. It means, 'Give up (or 'Give in') and admit I am God. God is addressing people who are opposed to Him
- D Martyn Lloyd Jones

to that piece in each of us that refuses to be silent.
- Audre Lorde

We can lie in the language of dress or try to tell the truth; but unless we are naked and bald, it is impossible to be silent.
- Alison Lurie

The world is hard and cruel. We are here none knows why, and we go none knows whither. We must be very humble. We must see the beauty of quietness. We must go through life so inconspicuously that Fate does not notice us. And let us seek the love of simple, ignorant people. Their ignorance is better than all our knowledge. Let us be silent, content in our little corner, meek and gentle like them. That is the wisdom of life.
- W Somerset Maugham

Hope will never be silent.
- Harvey Milk

When you sense that your dark night is one of pregnancy and oceanic return, you could react accordingly and be still. Watch and wonder. Take the human embryo as your model. Assume the fetal position, emotionally and intellectually. Be silent. Float in your darkness as if it were the waters of the womb, and give up trying to fight your way out or make sense of it.
- Thomas Moore

If he was silent I could be silent too. Indeed, I could very well do with a little rest in this subdued, frightened-to-death rocking chair, before I drove to wherever the beast's lair was - and then pulled the pistol's foreskin back, and then enjoyed the orgasm of the crushed trigger.
- Vladimir Nabokov

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 healing, not curing... that is a friend who cares.
- Henri Nouwen

To be silent. In hopes of not offending, in hopes of being accepted.
But what happened to people who never spoke, never raised their voices? Kept everything inside?
Gamache knew what happened. Everything they swallowed, every word, thought, feeling rattled around inside, hollowing the person out. And into that chasm they stuffed their words, their rage.
- Louise Penny

It is better wither to be silent, or to say things of more value than silence. Sooner throw a pearl at hazard than an idle or useless word; and do not say a little in many words, but a great deal in a few.
- Pythagoras

Be silent or let thy words be worth more than silence.
- Pythagoras

Solitude, though it may be silent as light, is like light, the mightiest of agencies; for solitude is essential to man. All men come into this world alone and leave it alone.
- Thomas De Quincey

I would rather be alone and a loud voice for action than be silent.
- Susan Rice

I get tired of talking when I want to be silent.
- Henry Rollins

Love said to me, there is nothing that is not me. Be silent.
- Rumi

Hear this if you can:
If you want to reach him
You have to go beyond yourself
And when you finally arrive at the land of absence
Be silent
Don't say a thing
Ecstasy, not words, is the language spoken there
- Rumi

Let yourself be silently drawn by the strange pull of what you really love. It will not lead you astray.
- Rumi

What if the invasion forces will not leave our lands? What if the U.S. forces and others stay in our beloved lands? What if their companies and embassy headquarters will continue to exist with the American flags hoisted on them? Will you be silent? Will you overlook this?
- Muqtada Al Sadr

Proclaim the truth and do not be silent through fear.
- St Catherine Of Siena

The world would be happier if men had the same capacity to be silent that they have to speak.
- Baruch Spinoza

I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.
- Elie Wiesel

A woman's place in public is to sit beside her husband, be silent, and be sure her hat is on straight.
- Bess Truman

The Obama representatives like Robert Gibbs attack people viciously, but people like me will not be silent and will answer them back.
- Donald Trump

Sometimes to be silent is to lie.
- Miguel De Unamuno

At times to be silent is to lie. You will win because you have enough brute force. But you will not convince. For to convince you need to persuade. And in order to persuade you would need what you lack: Reason and Right
- Miguel De Unamuno

To persevere in one's duty, and be silent is the best answer to calumny
- George Washington

You see, my brethren, my heart is full; I could almost say it is too big to speak, and yet too big to be silent, without dropping a word to you.
- George Whitefield

Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent.
- Ludwig Wittgenstein

I think it better that in times like these a poet's mouth be silent, for in truth we have no gift to set a statesman right.
- William Butler Yeats