“… because silence, too, has an echo, hollower and longer-lasting than the reverberations of any sound.”

— Salman Rushdie, book Midnight's Children

Source: Midnight's Children

Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "… because silence, too, has an echo, hollower and longer-lasting than the reverberations of any sound." by Salman Rushdie?

Salman Rushdie122

British Indian novelist and essayist 1947

Related quotes

“The sound of a kiss is not so loud as that of a cannon, but its echo lasts a deal longer.”

Oliver Wendell Holmes (1809–1894) Poet, essayist, physician

Source: The Professor at the Breakfast Table (1859), Ch. XI.

“Music is pleasing not only because of the sound but because of the silence that is in it: without the alternation of sound and silence there would be no rhythm.”

Thomas Merton book No Man Is an Island

Source: No Man Is an Island

“And silence sounds no worse than cheers
After earth has stopped the ears.”

A.E. Housman book A Shropshire Lad

No. 19 ("To an Athlete Dying Young"), st. 4.
A Shropshire Lad (1896)

“This sound has its own silence; all living things are involved in this sound of silence. To be attentive is to hear this silence and move with it.”

Jiddu Krishnamurti (1895–1986) Indian spiritual philosopher

Vol. II, p. 30
1980s, Letters to the Schools (1981, 1985)
Context: Attention involves seeing and hearing. We hear not only with our ears but also we are sensitive to the tones, the voice, to the implication of words, to hear without interference, to capture instantly the depth of a sound. Sound plays an extraordinary part in our lives: the sound of thunder, a flute playing in the distance, the unheard sound of the universe; the sound of silence, the sound of one’s own heart beating; the sound of a bird and the noise of a man walking on the pavement; the waterfall. The universe is filled with sound. This sound has its own silence; all living things are involved in this sound of silence. To be attentive is to hear this silence and move with it.

“In today's modern digital era, is it still possible for a government that tends to be tyrannical and despotic to silence voices that oppose it? I don't think so, because nowadays even a silenced voice can have a louder echo than the original voice.”

Titon Rahmawan

“It is always observable that silence propagates itself, and that the longer talk has been suspended, the more difficult it is to find any thing to say.”

Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) English writer

The Adventurer, # 84 (August 25, 1753) http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/12050 <br class="br">Variant: Silence propagates itself, and the longer talk has been suspended, the more difficult it is to find anything to say.