Remaining Silent Quotes

• Silence is the language of God, all else is poor translation.

  Rumi

  Inspirational, Spiritual, Past

  "Teachers of Wisdom". Book by Igor Kononenko, p. 134, 2010.

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  The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.

  Edmund Burke

  Inspirational, Wisdom, Witty

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  Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.

  Abraham Lincoln

  Funny, Life, Sarcastic

  Abraham Lincoln (1982). “Abraham Lincoln, wisdom & wit”, Peter Pauper Pr

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• Sometimes one creates a dynamic impression by saying something, and sometimes one creates as significant an impression by remaining silent.

  Dalai Lama

  Inspirational, Buddhist, Buddhism

  His Holiness The Dalai Lama (1998). “Path To Tranquility”, p.14, Penguin Books India

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  Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a little.

  Edmund Burke

  Life, Courage, Time

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• Speak when you are angry and you will make the best speech you will ever regret.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Inspirational, Cute, Sad

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• Wise men, when in doubt whether to speak or to keep quiet, give themselves the benefit of the doubt, and remain silent.

  Napoleon Hill

  Wise, Wisdom, Men

  Dr. Robert C. Worstell, Dorothea Brande, Claude M. Bristol, Earl Nightingale, Napoleon Hill (2017). “Mindset StackingTM Inspirational Journal VolumeSS01”, p.44, Lulu.com

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• Better remain silent, better not even think, if you are not prepared to act.

  Annie Besant

  Inspiring, Thinking, Silent

  Annie Besant (1917). “The Birth of New India: A Collection of Writings and Speeches on Indian Affairs”

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• The epitaph that I would write for history would say: I conceal nothing. It is not enough not to lie. One should strive not to lie in a negative sense by remaining silent.

  Leo Tolstoy

  Lying, Writing, Negative

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• Silence is only frightening to people who are compulsively verbalizing.

  William S. Burroughs

  Communication, People, Silence

  William S. Burroughs (1989). “The Job: Interviews with William S. Burroughs”, Penguin Group USA

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• Blessed is the man, who having nothing to say, abstains from giving wordy evidence of the fact.

  George Eliot

  Inspirational, Education, Wisdom

  The Impressions of Theophrastus Such "A Man Surprised at His Own Originality" (1879)

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• Music expresses that which cannot be put into words.

  Victor Hugo

  Music, Sound And Music, Musical Life

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• The idea of wilderness needs no defense. It only needs more defenders.
  Remaining silent about the destruction of nature is an endorsement of that destruction.

  Edward Abbey

  Ideas, Needs, Defense

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• The idea of wilderness needs no defense, it only needs defenders.

  Edward Abbey

  Ideas, Environmental, Needs

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• The right word may be effective, but no word was ever as effective as a rightly timed pause.

  Mark Twain

  Kindness, Book, Communication

  Mark Twain (2012). “Mark Twain at Your Fingertips: A Book of Quotations”, p.520, Courier Corporation

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• Too often the strong, silent man is silent only because he does not know what to say, and is reputed strong only because he has remained silent.

  Winston Churchill

  Being Strong, Military, Character

  Winston Churchill, Robert Rhodes James (1980). “Churchill speaks: Winston S. Churchill in peace and war : collected speeches, 1897-1963”, Atheneum

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• Seeing her sitting there unresponsive makes me realize that silence has a sound.

  Jodi Picoult

  Silence, Sound, Sitting

  Jodi Picoult (2009). “My Sister's Keeper - Movie Tie-In: A Novel”, p.39, Simon and Schuster

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• The sole remaining task for philosophy is the analysis of language.

  Ludwig Wittgenstein

  Philosophy, Tasks, Analysis

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• Even a fool, when he holdeth his peace, is counted wise.

  Jeremiah

  Wise, Silence, Intellectual

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• I'm intrigued that the same letters from the alphabet are used in the word silent and in the word listen. Perhaps it's evidence that the most important part of listening involves remaining silent.

  Robert Herjavec

  Listening, Important, Letters

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• I don't think..." then you shouldn't talk, said the Hatter.

  Lewis Carroll

  Thinking, Silence, Wonderland

  Lewis Carroll (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Lewis Carroll (Illustrated)”, p.115, Delphi Classics

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• New-Year's Day arriving, and the ministers, to whom I wrote, remaining silent, I consider their silence as evidence, that they cannot prove what I said not to be from the Lord, and have therefore published as I was directed.

  Joanna Southcott

  New Year, Years, Silence

  Joanna Southcott (1813). “Copies of letters sent to the clergy of Exeter. 1813. A communication sent in a letter to the Reverend Mr. P. in 1797. [1814] A dispute between the woman and the powers of darkness. 2d ed. 1813. The answer of the Lord to the powers of darkness. 2d ed. 1813. A caution and instruction to the sealed. 1807. A warning to the world. [1804] The strange effects of faith. 2d ed. 1801”

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• I don't fear death; I fear remaining silent in the face of injustice. I am young and I want to live. But I say to those that would eliminate my voice: I am ready, wherever and whenever you might strike. You can cut down the flower, but nothing can stop the coming of the spring.

  Malalai Joya

  Spring, Flower, Cutting

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• Then one day I realized that a false picture of the German camps had been created and that the problem of the concentration camps was a universal one, not just one that could be disposed of by placing it on the doorstep of the National Socialists. The deportees - many of whom were Communists - had been largely responsible for leading international political thinking to such an erroneous conclusion. I suddenly felt that by remaining silent I was an accomplice to a dangerous influence.

  Paul Rassinier

  Thinking, Holocaust, Political

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• Whoever criticizes capitalism, while approving immigration, whose working class is its first victim, had better shut up. Whoever criticizes immigration, while remaining silent about capitalism, should do the same.

  Alain de Benoist

  Class, Immigration, Firsts

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