Long Silence Quotes

• What is to come will emerge only after long suffering, long silence.

  Cesare Pavese

  Long, Silence, Suffering

  Cesare Pavese, Alma Elizabeth Murch (1961). “This Business of Living”, p.26, Transaction Publishers

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• In the attitude of silence the soul finds the path in a clearer light, and what is elusive and deceptive resolves itself into crystal clearness. Our life is a long and arduous quest after Truth.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Inspirational, Motivational, Attitude

  Mahatma Gandhi (2011). “The Way to God: Selected Writings from Mahatma Gandhi”, p.55, North Atlantic Books

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• He who does not understand your silence will probably not understand your words.

  Elbert Hubbard

  Grieving, Self Respect, Silence

  Elbert Hubbard, Bert Hubbard (1923). “Selected writings of Elbert Hubbard: his mintage of wisdom, coined from a life of love, laughter and work”

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• Sometimes being a friend means mastering the art of timing. There is a time for silence. A time to let go and allow people to hurl themselves into their own destiny. And a time to prepare to pick up the pieces when it's all over.

  Octavia Butler

  Best Friend, Friendship, Letting Go

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• Sometimes being a friend means mastering the art of timing. There is a time for silence. A time to let go... And a time to prepare to pick up the pieces when it's all over.

  Gloria Naylor

  Friendship, Letting Go, Art

  Gloria Naylor (2005). “The Women of Brewster Place”, p.56, Penguin

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• There are some long silences in Scandinavian and some Japanese films, when the audience knows action is taking place, but the audience hears no action.

  John Henrik Clarke

  Long, Silence, Action

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• ON HER DEATHBED, Gertrude Stein is said to have asked, 'What is the answer?' Then, after a long silence, 'What is the question?' Don't start looking in the Bible for the answers it gives. Start by listening for the questions it asks.

  Frederick Buechner

  Long, Giving, Silence

  Frederick Buechner (1973). “Wishful thinking: a theological ABC.”, Harper San Francisco

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• The long silences need to be loved, perhaps more than the words which arrive to describe them in time.

  Franz Wright

  Long, Silence, Needs

  Franz Wright (2009). “God's Silence”, p.8, Knopf

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• There is an old story about the boy at Eton who committed suicide. The other boys in his house were gathered together and asked if any of them could suggest a reason for the tragedy. After a long silence a small boy in the front put up his hand: 'Could it have been the food, sir?

  Auberon Waugh

  Suicide, Boys, Hands

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• To remember love after long sleep; to turn again to poetry after a year in the market place, or to youth after resignation to drowsy and stiffening age; to remember what once you thought life could hold, after telling over with muddied and calculating fingers what it has offered; this is music, made after long silence. The soul flexes its wings, and, clumsy as any fledgling, tries the air again

  Mary Stewart

  Sleep, Air, Years

  Mary Stewart (1978). “Hollow Hills”, Fawcett

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• Some years ago, not long after I moved to Los Angeles from New York, I attended a television industry party. When a man asked my profession, I told him that I was a writer. He sipped his drink. "Half-hour or hour?" he inquired. There was a long silence. "Lifelong," I replied.

  Carol Muske-Dukes

  New York, Party, Men

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• Speech after long silence; it is right, All other lovers being estranged or dead . . . That we descant and yet again descant Upon the supreme theme of Art and Song: Bodily decrepitude is wisdom; young We loved each other and were ignorant.

  William Butler Yeats

  Wisdom, Song, Art

  William Butler Yeats (2011). “The Yeats Reader, Revised Edition: A Portable Compendium of Poetry, Drama, and Prose”, p.206, Simon and Schuster

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• Being a Silent Brother is life, Clary Fray. But if you mean I remember my life before the Brotherhood, I do. Clary took a deep breath. “Were you ever in love? Before the Brotherhood? Was there ever anyone you would have died for?” There was a long silence. Then: Two people, said Brother Zachariah. There are memories that time does not erase, Clarissa. Ask your friend Magnus Bane, if you do not believe me. Forever does not make loss forgettable, only bearable.

  Cassandra Clare

  Brother, Memories, Believe

  Cassandra Clare (2012). “Cassandra Clare: The Mortal Instruments Series (5 books): City of Bones; City of Ashes; City of Glass; City of Fallen Angels, City of Lost Souls”, p.2269, Simon and Schuster

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• It was one of those problematic occasions with long silences, sporadic coughs, and people saying isolated things like, "Well, isn't this nice.

  Terry Pratchett

  Nice, Long, People

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• Shigure Sohma: So, anyway, I was wondering if you could stop by the house and take a look at Tohru's cut. That is, if it isn't a problem.
  Hatori Sohma: No problem. I'll stop by the house this evening.
  Shigure Sohma: Hmmm? What's this, Hatori? I don't think I ever heard you sound so eager to come over. Could it be you have a secret crush on Tohru?
  [long silence from the other end of the phone]
  Shigure Sohma: [shouts] I knew it! You naughty, naughty man, you!
  Hatori Sohma: No, I was simply too amazed by your stupidity to say anything.

  Natsuki Takaya

  Crush, Cutting, Men

  "Fruits Basket". www.imdb.com. 2001.

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• For some time she observed a great yellow butterfly, which was opening and closing its wings very slowly on a little flat stone. "What is it to be in love?" she demanded, after a long silence; each word as it came into being seemed to shove itself out into an unknown sea. Hypnotized by the wings of the butterfly, and awed by the discovery of a terrible possibility in life, she sat for some time longer. When the butterfly flew away, she rose, and within, her two books beneath her arm returned again, much as a soldier prepares for battle.

  Virginia Woolf

  Book, Butterfly, Discovery

  Virginia Woolf (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Virginia Woolf (Illustrated)”, p.157, Delphi Classics

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• After a long silence, Dodge cleared his throat. "I think I speak for all of us when I say, 'Huh?'" -Dodge(obviously)

  Frank Beddor

  Thinking, Long, Silence

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• "Rabbit's clever," said Pooh thoughtfully. "Yes," said Piglet, "Rabbit's clever." "And he has Brain." "Yes," said Piglet, "Rabbit has Brain." There was a long silence. "I suppose," said Pooh, "that that's why he never understands anything."

  Benjamin Hoff

  Funny, Clever, Humor

  "The Tao of Pooh". Book by Benjamin Hoff, 1982.

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• "All right then," said the savage defiantly, I'm claiming the right to be unhappy."
  "Not to mention the right to grow old and ugly and impotent; the right to have syphilis and cancer; the right to have too little to eat, the right to be lousy; the right to live in constant apprehension of what may happen tomorrow; the right to catch typhoid; the right to be tortured by unspeakable pains of every kind."
  There was a long silence.
  "I claim them all," said the Savage at last.

  Aldous Huxley

  Pain, Cancer, Long

  "Brave New World". Book by Aldous Huxley. Chapter 17, 1932.

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• Something unpronounceable followed by a long silence points out my life is becoming a landscape.

  Mary Ruefle

  Long, Silence, Landscape

  Mary Ruefle (1989). “The Adamant”, p.13, University of Iowa Press

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• I remember having a friend overnight, and lots of giggling after the lights were out. And seemingly long silences followed by “Are you asleep yet?” and, sometimes, some pretty serious discussions about God and Life.

  Joe Brainard

  Light, Long, Silence

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