„What keeps my heart awake is colorful silence.“
— Claude Monet French impressionist painter 1840 - 1926
Quotes about silence
A collection of quotes on the topic of silence, likeness, can, use.
Best quotes about silence
„When you have something to say, silence is a lie.“
— Jordan Peterson Canadian clinical psychologist, cultural critic, and professor of psychology 1962
„Quiet people have the loudest minds.“
— Stephen Hawking British theoretical physicist, cosmologist, and author 1942 - 2018
„Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.“
— Martin Luther King, Jr. American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement 1929 - 1968
Source: I Have a Dream: Writings and Speeches That Changed the World
„A thousand Dreams within me softly burn“
— Arthur Rimbaud French Decadent and Symbolist poet 1854 - 1891
„Music is the space between the notes.“
— Claude Debussy French composer 1862 - 1918
As quoted in Turning Numbers into Knowledge: Mastering the Art of Problem Solving (2001) by Jonathan G. Koomey, p. 96; since at least 2010 similar statements are also sometimes attributed to Mozart, and a similar remark, apparently one of Ben Jonson, is quoted in "Notes to Cynthia's Revels, in The Works of Ben Jonson: With Notes Critical and Explanatory, and a Biographical Memoir (1875), edited by William Gifford, Vol. 2, in notes to p. 223, on p. 551: Division, in music, is "the space between the notes of music, or the dividing of the tones."
Unsourced variants:
Music is the silence between the notes.
The music is not in the notes, but in the silence between.
The music is not in the notes, but in the silence between them.
Variant: Music is the space between the notes.
„Nothing strengthens authority so much as silence.“
— Leonardo Da Vinci Italian Renaissance polymath 1452 - 1519
„Silence is worse; all truths that are kept silent become poisonous.“
— Friedrich Nietzsche, book Thus Spoke Zarathustra
Source: Thus Spoke Zarathustra
„He who does not understand your silence will probably not understand your words.“
— Elbert Hubbard American writer, publisher, artist, and philosopher fue el escritor del jarron azul 1856 - 1915
„Silence at the proper season is wisdom, and better than any speech.“
— Plutarch ancient Greek historian and philosopher 46 - 127
All quotes about silence
Total 1578 quotes silence, filter:
„The music is not in the notes,
but in the silence between.“
— Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Austrian Romantic composer 1756 - 1791
„In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies but the silence of our friends.“
— Martin Luther King, Jr. American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement 1929 - 1968
1960s, The Trumpet of Conscience (1967)
Variant: In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.
„We're fascinated by the words--but where we meet is in the silence behind them.“
— Ram Dass American contemporary spiritual teacher and the author of the 1971 book Be Here Now 1931 - 2019
„Silence
is an ocean. Speech is a river.“
— Rumi Iranian poet 1207 - 1273
"The Three Fish" Ch. 18 : The Three Fish, p. 196
Variant translations or adaptations:
Silence is the language of God, all else is poor translation.
As quoted in Teachers of Wisdom (2010) by Igor Kononenko, p. 134
Silence is an ocean. Speech is a river. Silence is the language of God, all else is poor translation.
As quoted in "Rumi’s wisdom" (2 October 2015) http://paulocoelhoblog.com/2015/10/02/character-of-the-week-rumi/, by Paulo Coelho
The Essential Rumi (1995)
Context: 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.
„I understand, and not knowing how to express myself without pagan words, I’d rather remain silent“
— Arthur Rimbaud French Decadent and Symbolist poet 1854 - 1891
Source: A Season in Hell/The Drunken Boat
“Well, then,” said Callias, “take a place; for the guests, though well fed, as you observe, on seriousness, are perhaps rather ill supplied with laughter.”
Symposium, 1.11-13
„Let silence be your general rule; or say only what is necessary and in few words.“
— Epictetus philosopher from Ancient Greece 50 - 138
Golden Sayings of Epictetus
Context: Let silence be your general rule; or say only what is necessary and in few words. We shall, however, when occasion demands, enter into discourse sparingly, avoiding such common topics as gladiators, horse-races, athletes; and the perpetual talk about food and drink. Above all avoid speaking of persons, either in the way of praise or blame, or comparison. If you can, win over the conversation of your company to what it should be by your own. But if you should find yourself cut off without escape among strangers and aliens, be silent. (164).
„I never observed silence till I was hanged.“
— Nathuram Godse Assassin of Mahatma Gandhi 1910 - 1949
Excerpts from the play Mee Nathuram Godse boltoy
— Elie Wiesel writer, professor, political activist, Nobel Laureate, and Holocaust survivor 1928 - 2016
— Elisabeth Kübler-Ross American psychiatrist 1926 - 2004
As quoted in " Elisabeth Kübler-Ross: Messenger of Love https://books.google.com/books?id=3esDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA2&lpg=PA2&dq=%22Yoga+Journal%22+Kronisch&source=bl&ots=B895e3lzeI&sig=7V4uALc6CTiPrF02-cV8AAzsgbw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjM1enasPLSAhWs6oMKHbpyAbQQ6AEIJjAA#v=onepage&q=%22Elisabeth%20Kubler-Ross%22&f=false" by Lennie Kronisch in Yoga Journal, Issue 11, November-December 1976, pp. 18-20
Context: Learn to get in touch with silence within yourself and know that everything in this life has a purpose. There are no mistakes, no coincidences; all events are blessings given to us to learn from. 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.
— Arthur Rimbaud French Decadent and Symbolist poet 1854 - 1891
Source: A Season in Hell/The Drunken Boat
„Never say anything that doesn't improve on silence.“
— Richard Yates, A Good School
Source: A Good School
„You have a grand gift for silence, Watson. It makes you quite invaluable as a companion.“
— Arthur Conan Doyle Scottish physician and author 1859 - 1930
Source: The Complete Sherlock Holmes
— Vladimir Lenin Russian politician, led the October Revolution 1870 - 1924
Source: Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism: Full Text of 1916 Edition
— Thomas Sankara President of Upper Volta 1949 - 1987
Source: Women's Liberation and the African Freedom Struggle
„Silence is golden when you can't think of a good answer.“
— Muhammad Ali African American boxer, philanthropist and activist 1942 - 2016
„Go Placidly, Amid the noise and Haste & Remember what peace there may be in silence…“
— Max Ehrmann American writer, poet, and attorney 1872 - 1945
Source: Desiderata: A Poem for a Way of Life
„When silence is prolonged over a certain period of time, it takes on new meaning.“
— Yukio Mishima, book Thirst for Love
Source: Thirst for Love
„Your silence will not protect you.“
— Audre Lorde writer and activist 1934 - 1992
essay "The Transformation of Silence into Language and Action", in Sister Outsider
Source: Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches
— Markus Persson Swedish video game programmer 1979
In Twitter (14 August 2017) https://twitter.com/notch/status/897158641962319878
„Man goes into the noisy crowd to drown his own clamour of silence.“
— Rabindranath Tagore, Stray Birds
110
Stray Birds (1916)
„In silence and movement you can show the reflection of people.“
— Marcel Marceau French mime and actor 1923 - 2007
US News & World Report (23 February 1987)
„Silence is most powerful. Speech is always less powerful than silence.“
— Ramana Maharshi Indian religious leader 1879 - 1950
Abide as the Self
„Maintaining silence about a dirty truth is another way of lying, a common practice in high places.“
— Michael Parenti American academic 1933
2 MEDIA AND CULTURE, The Invisible Bloodbaths, p. 132
Dirty truths (1996), first edition
„Mansplaining is a sexist term designed to silence men via gender shaming.“
— Markus Persson Swedish video game programmer 1979
[Hansen, Steven, Minecraft billionaire feels oppressed by women, https://www.destructoid.com/minecraft-billionaire-feels-oppressed-by-women-363094.phtml, 12 November 2017, Destructoid, 2016-05-23]
— Albert Einstein German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity 1879 - 1955
Attributed in “The Conflict Between Church And State In The Third Reich”, by S. Parkes Cadman, La Crosse Tribune and Leader-Press (28 October 1934), viewable online on p. 9 of the issue here http://newspaperarchive.com/us/wisconsin/la-crosse/la-crosse-tribune-and-leader-press/1934/10-28/ (double-click the page to zoom). The quote is preceded by “In this connection it is worth quoting in free translation a statement made by Professor Einstein last year to one of my colleagues who has been prominently identified with the Protestant church in its contacts with Germany.” [Emphasis added.] While based on something that Einstein said, Einstein himself stated that the quote was not an accurate record of his words or opinion. After the quote appeared in Time magazine (23 December 1940), p. 38 http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,765103,00.html, a minister in Harbor Springs, Michigan wrote to Einstein to check if the quote was real. Einstein wrote back “It is true that I made a statement which corresponds approximately with the text you quoted. I made this statement during the first years of the Nazi-Regime — much earlier than 1940 — and my expressions were a little more moderate.” (March 1943) http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/roadshow/archive/200706A19.html
In a later letter to Rev. Cornelius Greenway of Brooklyn, who asked if Einstein would write out the statement in his own hand, Einstein was more vehement in his repudiation of the statement (14 November 1950) http://books.google.com/books?id=T5R7JsRRtoIC&pg=PA94: <blockquote><p>The wording of the statement you have quoted is not my own. Shortly after Hitler came to power in Germany I had an oral conversation with a newspaper man about these matters. Since then my remarks have been elaborated and exaggerated nearly beyond recognition. I cannot in good conscience write down the statement you sent me as my own.</p><p> The matter is all the more embarrassing to me because I, like yourself, I am predominantly critical concerning the activities, and especially the political activities, through history of the official clergy. Thus, my former statement, even if reduced to my actual words (which I do not remember in detail) gives a wrong impression of my general attitude.</p></blockquote>
: In his original statement Einstein was probably referring to the actions of the Emergency Covenant of Pastors organized by Martin Niemöller, and the Confessing Church which he and other prominent churchmen such as Karl Barth and Dietrich Bonhoeffer established in opposition to Nazi policies.
: Einstein also made some scathingly negative comments about the behavior of the Church under the Nazi regime (and its behavior towards Jews throughout history) in a 1943 conversation with William Hermanns recorded in Hermanns' book Einstein and the Poet (1983). On p. 63 http://books.google.com/books?id=QXCyjj6T5ZUC&lpg=PP1&pg=PA63#v=onepage&q&f=false Hermanns records him saying "Never in history has violence been so widespread as in Nazi Germany. The concentration camps make the actions of Ghengis Khan look like child's play. But what makes me shudder is that the Church is silent. One doesn't need to be a prophet to say, 'The Catholic Church will pay for this silence.' Dr. Hermanns, you will live to see that there is moral law in the universe. . . .There are cosmic laws, Dr. Hermanns. They cannot be bribed by prayers or incense. What an insult to the principles of creation. But remember, that for God a thousand years is a day. This power maneuver of the Church, these Concordats through the centuries with worldly powers . . . the Church has to pay for it. We live now in a scientific age and in a psychological age. You are a sociologist, aren't you? You know what the Herdenmenschen (men of herd mentality) can do when they are organized and have a leader, especially if he is a spokesmen for the Church. I do not say that the unspeakable crimes of the Church for 2000 years had always the blessings of the Vatican, but it vaccinated its believers with the idea: We have the true God, and the Jews have crucified Him. The Church sowed hate instead of love, though the Ten Commandments state: Thou shalt not kill." And then on p. 64 http://books.google.com/books?id=QXCyjj6T5ZUC&lpg=PP1&pg=PA64#v=onepage&q&f=false: "I'm not a Communist but I can well understand why they destroyed the Church in Russia. All the wrongs come home, as the proverb says. The Church will pay for its dealings with Hitler, and Germany, too." And on p. 65 http://books.google.com/books?id=QXCyjj6T5ZUC&lpg=PP1&pg=PA65#v=onepage&q&f=false: "I don't like to implant in youth the Church's doctrine of a personal God, because that Church has behaved so inhumanely in the past 2000 years. The fear of punishment makes the people march. Consider the hate the Church manifested against the Jews and then against the Muslims, the Crusades with their crimes, the burning stakes of the Inquisition, the tacit consent of Hitler's actions while the Jews and the Poles dug their own graves and were slaughtered. And Hitler is said to have been an alter boy! The truly religious man has no fear of life and no fear of death—and certainly no blind faith; his faith must be in his conscience. . . . I am therefore against all organized religion. Too often in history, men have followed the cry of battle rather than the cry of truth." When Hermanns asked him "Isn't it only human to move along the line of least resistance?", Einstein responded "Yes. It is indeed human, as proved by Cardinal Pacelli, who was behind the Concordat with Hitler. Since when can one make a pact with Christ and Satan at the same time? And he is now the Pope! The moment I hear the word 'religion', my hair stands on end. The Church has always sold itself to those in power, and agreed to any bargain in return for immunity. It would have been fine if the spirit of religion had guided the Church; instead, the Church determined the spirit of religion. Churchmen through the ages have fought political and institutional corruption very little, so long as their own sanctity and church property were preserved."
Misattributed
„By Silence, the discretion of a man is known: and a fool, keeping Silence, seemeth to be wise.“
— Pythagoras ancient Greek mathematician and philosopher -585 - -495 BC
The Sayings of the Wise (1555)
— Ali, book Nahj al-Balagha
Nahj al-Balagha
„Move outside the tangle of fear-thinking.
Live in silence.“
— Rumi Iranian poet 1207 - 1273
"A Community of the Spirit" in Ch. 1 : The Tavern, p. 2
The Essential Rumi (1995)
Context: Move outside the tangle of fear-thinking.
Live in silence. Flow down and down in always
widening rings of being.
— Sri Sri Ravi Shankar spiritual leader 1956
Narada Bhakti Sutras (2001)
Context: A million words cannot express what a glance can convey, and a million glances cannot express what a moment of silence can. A moment of silence conveys so much more than any other expression. Still, love is beyond silence too. You can describe silence to some extent, but that which is beyond silence cannot be expressed. You give, you hug... but still something remains unexpressed.
— Swami Shraddhanand Indian monk and philosopher 1856 - 1926
Goel, Sita Ram (editor) (1998). Freedom of expression: Secular theocracy versus liberal democracy. https://web.archive.org/web/20171026023112/http://www.bharatvani.org:80/books/foe/index.htm Ch. 6
— Elisabeth Kübler-Ross American psychiatrist 1926 - 2004
„Silence is the only language god speaks.“
— Charles Simic American poet 1938
Source: Dime-Store Alchemy
„All I want is blackness. Blackness and silence.“
— Sylvia Plath American poet, novelist and short story writer 1932 - 1963
„The answer to injustice is not to silence the critic, but to end the injustice.“
— Paul Robeson American singer and actor 1898 - 1976
„It is better to keep your mouth shut and appear stupid than to open it and remove all doubt.“
— Mark Twain American author and humorist 1835 - 1910
Cited as an example of "What Mark Twain Didn't Say" in Mark Twain by Geoffrey C. Ward, et al.
Misattributed
Variant: It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt.
— Michel Foucault French philosopher 1926 - 1984
Source: The History of Sexuality, Volume 1: An Introduction
„When truth is replaced by silence, the silence is a lie.“
— Yevgeny Yevtushenko Russian poet, film director, teacher 1932 - 2017
„Every word has consequences. Every silence, too.“
— Jean Paul Sartre French existentialist philosopher, playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and literary cri… 1905 - 1980
„you’d think that silence would be peaceful. but really, it’s painful.“
— David Levithan, book Will Grayson, Will Grayson
Source: Will Grayson, Will Grayson
„The silence drew off, baring the pebbles and shells and all the tatty wreckage of my life.“
— Sylvia Plath, book The Bell Jar
Source: The Bell Jar
— Thomas Sankara President of Upper Volta 1949 - 1987
Source: Women's Liberation and the African Freedom Struggle
„All of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone.“
Variant: All men's miseries derive from not being able to sit quiet in a room alone.
Source: Pensées
„Silence can ask all the questions, where the tongue is prone to ask only the wrong one.“
— Robin Hobb, book Fool's Errand
Source: Fool's Errand
— Benjamin Hoff, book The Tao of Pooh
Source: The Tao of Pooh
„What cannot be said above all must not be silenced but written.“
— Jacques Derrida French philosopher (1930-2004) 1930 - 2004
„Worse even
than your maddening
song, your silence." -“
— Sylvia Plath American poet, novelist and short story writer 1932 - 1963
Source: The Collected Poems
„The world's continual breathing is what we hear and call silence.“
— Clarice Lispector, book The Passion According to G.H.
Source: The Passion According to G.H.
— Vincent Van Gogh Dutch post-Impressionist painter (1853-1890) 1853 - 1890
Quote in his letter from Drenthe, The Netherlands, Oct. 1883, 'Van Gogh's Letters', http://webexhibits.org/vangogh/letter/13/336.htm
1880s, 1883
— Elie Wiesel writer, professor, political activist, Nobel Laureate, and Holocaust survivor 1928 - 2016
Nobel acceptance speech (1986)
— Helen Keller American author and political activist 1880 - 1968
Helen Adams Keller (p. 60. Helen Keller's Journal: 1936-1937, Doubleday, Doran & company, inc., 1938)
„To be an artist, you need to exist in a world of silence.“
— Louise Bourgeois American and French sculptor 1911 - 2010
— Oscar Wilde, book The Canterville Ghost
Source: The Canterville Ghost http://www.planetmonk.com/wilde/savile/canterville.c1.html (1887)
„Silence can be either protest or consent, but most times it’s fear.“
— Paul Beatty, book The Sellout
Source: The Sellout
— Haruki Murakami, book Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage
Source: Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage
— Leslie Weatherhead English theologian 1893 - 1976
Source: The Christian Agnostic (1965), p.29
„The day will come when our silence will be more powerful than the voices you strangle today.“
— August Spies American upholsterer, radical labor activist, and newspaper editor 1855 - 1887
Cited in: Kenneth G. Alfers (1993) America's second century: readings in United States history since 1877. p. 43
— Alan Parsons audio engineer, musician, and record producer from England 1948
"Silence and I", from the album Eye In The Sky. (Written by Alan Parsons and Eric Woolfson.)
Quotes from songs
— Henry Steele Commager American historian 1902 - 1998
Source: Freedom, Loyalty, Dissent (1954), p. 147
— Ursula K. Le Guin American writer 1929 - 2018
Source: Earthsea Books, A Wizard of Earthsea (1968), Chapter 5
„The silence of a wise man is always meaningful.“
— Leo Strauss, book Thoughts on Machiavelli
Source: Thoughts on Machiavelli (1958), p. 30
— Abraham Lincoln 16th President of the United States 1809 - 1865
Remarks at the Monogahela House (14 February 1861); as published in The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln (1953) by Roy P. Basler, vol. 4, p. 209
1860s
— Anna Kingsford English physician, activist and feminist 1846 - 1888
[You, you are neither man nor woman; I don't want to write your name.] I stood silent in the midst of a dead silence.
Written to her husband in 1874; quoted in The Scalpel and the Butterfly by Deborah Rudacille (University of California Press, 2000), p. 35 https://books.google.it/books?id=BabamiCYEdUC&pg=PA35.