“Silence was not the absence of sound but was itself a sound that could be loud or soft, soothing or disturbing, complex or simple.”

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.

Source: No Man Is an Island

As quoted in Awakening Indians to India (2008), p. 82
Context: If the deaf are to hear, the sound has to be very loud. When we dropped the bomb, it was not our intention to kill anybody. We have bombed the British Government. The British must quit India and make her free.

Source: Alexander’s Feast http://www.bartleby.com/40/265.html (1697), l. 158–159.

“Scream,” p. 34
The Creator (2000), Sequence: “Forest of the Universe”

Source: Love, Rosie

Sonnet, Silence; reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
20th century

“Scream,” p. 34
The Creator (2000), Sequence: “Forest of the Universe”