“Silence is a learned practice that requires far more than just not talking. Not talking is not silence; it's just not talking.”

“Why must one talk? Often one shouldn't talk, but live in silence. The more one talks, the less the words mean. (Nana Kleinfrankenheim, Vivre Sa Vie)”

Jean-Luc Godard (1930) French-Swiss film director, screenwriter and film critic

“Having to talk destroys the symphony of silence.”

Aleister Crowley book Diary of a Drug Fiend

“I don't like talking. I don’t like people talking to me... Painting is silence.”

Bram van Velde (1895–1981) Dutch painter

“There is nothing harder, at moments, than talking to someone who has all the power of silence.”

Elizabeth Kostova (1964) American writer

“The last introvert in a world of extroverts. Silence: my response to both emptiness and saturation. But silence frightens people. I had to learn how to talk. Out of politeness.”

Ariel Gore (1970) American writer

“Don't talk unless you can improve the silence.”

Jorge Luis Borges (1899–1986) Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator, and a key figure in Spanish language literature

“I believe in the discipline of silence, and could talk for hours about it.”

George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish playwright

“all which isn't singing is mere talking
…
and all talking's to oneself alone
but the very song of(as mountains
feel and lovers)singing is silence”

E.E. Cummings (1894–1962) American poet

“Speech and silence. We feel safer with a madman who talks than with one who cannot open his mouth.”

Emil M. Cioran (1911–1995) Romanian philosopher and essayist