Silence Quotes - Page 39

• All which isn't singing is mere talking... and all talking's to oneself alone but the very song of (as mountains feel and lovers) singing is silence.

  e. e. cummings

  Song, Talking, Singing

  "73 poems (32)". Book by E. E. Cummings, 1962.

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• Into the void of silence, into the empty space of nothing, the joy of life is unfurled.

  C. S. Lewis

  Life, Space, Joy

  C. S. Lewis, Aurand Harris (1985). “The Magician's Nephew”, p.21, Dramatic Publishing

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• Give me the clear blue sky over my head, and the green turf beneath my feet, a winding road before me, and a three hours' march to dinner - and then to thinking! ... I begin to feel, think, and be myself again. Instead of an awkward silence, broken by attempts at wit or dull common-places, mine is that undisturbed silence of the heart which alone is perfect eloquence.

  William Hazlitt

  Heart, Thinking, Blue

  William Hazlitt (1871). “Table Talk: Essays on Men and Manners”, p.250

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• If death is this brilliant slide, this high, fine music felt as pure vibration, this plunging float in wind and silence, it's not so bad.

  Jayne Anne Phillips

  Wind, Vibrations, Slides

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• Men do not mirror themselves in running water; they mirror themselves in still water.

  Bill Vaughan

  Running, Men, Mirrors

  "Zhuangzi: Basic Writings". Book by Zhuangzi, Columbia University Press, p. 64, 2003.

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• As the romance of manned space exploration has waned, the drive today is to find our living, thinking counterparts in the universe. For all the excitement, however, the search betrays a profound melancholy - a lonely species in a merciless universe anxiously awaits an answering voice amid utter silence.

  Charles Krauthammer

  Lonely, Thinking, Space

  "Are We Alone in the Universe?". jewishworldreview.com. December 30, 2011.

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• Le silence est la plus grande perse  cution: jamais les saints ne se sont tus. Silence is the greatest of all persecutions: no saint was ever silent.

  Blaise Pascal

  Saint, Silent, Plus

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• Deep in the shady sadness of a vale Far sunken from the healthy breath of morn, Far from the fiery noon and eve's one star, Sat gray-haired Saturn, quiet as a stone, Still as the silence round about his lair.

  John Keats

  Stars, Sadness, Healthy

  1820 Lamia, Isabella, The Eve of St. Agnes and Other Poems, 'Hyperion', bk.1, l.1-5.

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• The jungle looked back at them with a vastness, a breathing moss-and-leaf silence, with a billion diamond and emerald insect eyes.

  Ray Bradbury

  Eye, Breathing, Moss

  Ray Bradbury (2013). “Bradbury Stories: 100 of His Most Celebrated Tales”, p.34, Harper Collins

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• All silence is. All emptiness. And now: The dawn.

  Ray Bradbury

  Dawn, Emptiness, Silence Is

  Ray Bradbury (1973). “When elephants last in the dooryard bloomed: celebrations for almost any day in the year”, Alfred A. Knopf

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• [As a screenwriter] I have a sense of exile from thought, a nostalgia of the quiet room and balanced mind. I am a writer, and there comes a time when that which I write has to belong to me, has to be written alone and in silence, with no one looking over my shoulder, no one telling me a better way to write it. It doesn't have to be great writing, it doesn't even have to be terribly good. It just has to be mine.

  Raymond Chandler

  Writing, Mind, Way

  "A Qualified Farewell". Essay by Raymond Chandler (early 1950's), published in "The Notebooks of Raymond Chandler" edited by Frank MacShane, 1976.

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• I like the idea of going to one of those retreats where you don't speak - like, silence for five days.

  Madonna Ciccone

  Ideas, Retreat, Speak

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

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• I think the silence would be good with me, and not interacting with people would be okay. But not being able to move outside of the space would be hard. Not being able to walk around - the stillness of my body, physically - that would be the challenge.

  Madonna Ciccone

  Moving, Thinking, Space

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

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• Only one ship is seeking us, a black-Sailed unfamiliar, towing at her backA huge and birdless silence. In her wakeNo waters breed or break.

  Philip Larkin

  Water, Black, Ships

  Philip Larkin (2012). “The Less Deceived”, p.12, Faber & Faber

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• Silence accompanies the most significant expressions of happiness and unhappiness: those in love understand one another best when silent, while the most heated and impassioned speech at a graveside touches only outsiders, but seems cold and inconsequential to the widow and children of the deceased.

  Anton Chekhov

  Children, Expression, Outsiders

  "Enemies". Short story by Anton Chekhov, 1887.

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• See, once you have begun to experience solitude and silence, you discover that you actually have a soul and that there is a God.Then you can begin to practice Sabbath and that will enable you to re-enter community.You can't have community without Sabbath.

  Dallas Willard

  Practice, Community, Soul

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• Silence dies, clamor takes the power everywhere

  Alain Finkielkraut

  Clamor, Dies

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• Magic is that which it is; it is by itself, like the mathematics; for it is the exact and absolute science of Nature and its laws . Magic is the science of the Ancient Magi: and the Christian religion, which has imposed silence on the lying oracles, and put an end to the prestiges of the false Gods , itself reveres those Magi who came from the East, guided by a Star , to adore the Saviour of the world in His cradle.

  Albert Pike

  Christian, Stars, Lying

  Albert Pike (2013). “Morals and Dogma”, p.751, Simon and Schuster

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• To many mortals silence great gain brings.

  Aeschylus

  Gains, Mortals

  Aeschylus (1868). “The Tragedies of Aeschylos: The Persians. The seven who fought against Thebes. Prometheus bound. The suppliants. Fragments. Appendix of rhymed choruses”, p.232

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• I think people are always looking for gurus. It's the easiest thing in the world to become a guru. It's quite terrifying. I once saw something fascinating here in New York. It must have been in the early seventies--guru time. A man used to go and sit in Central Park, wearing elaborate golden robes. He never once opened his mouth, he just sat. He'd appear at lunchtime. People appeared from everywhere, because he was obviously a holy man, and this went on for months. They just sat around him in reverent silence. Eventually he got fed up with it and left. Yes. It's as easy as that.

  Doris Lessing

  New York, Men, Thinking

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• I am a strange compound of weakness and resolution! However, if I must suffer, I will endeavour to suffer in silence. There is certainly a great defect in my mind my wayward heart creates its own misery Why I am made thus I cannot tell; and, till I can form some idea of the whole of my existence, I must be content to weep and dance like a child long for a toy, and be tired of it as soon as I get it.

  Mary Wollstonecraft

  Children, Tired, Heart

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• I have learned that God’s silence to my questions is not a door slammed in my face. I may not have the answers—but I do have him.

  Dave Dravecky

  Doors, Answers, May

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• There I was out in the barn playing midwife to a pregnant mare. I remember sitting there, spinning yarn in the light of a little oil lamp, a city girl who knew nothing about farming, sitting on the deel beside that mother in pain, already beginning the birthing process. All around me there was darkness and perfect silence, except for the mother's pain. It was as if the war didn't exist in those hours.

  Diet Eman

  Girl, Mother, Pain

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• If all the world were music, Our hearts would often long For one sweet strain of silence. To break the endless song.

  Henry Van Dyke

  Song, Sweet, Heart

  Henry Van Dyke (1927). “Chosen poems”

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• I hate the countrie's dirt and manners, yet I love the silence; I embrace the wit; A courtship, flowing here in full tide. But loathe the expense, the vanity and pride. No place each way is happy.

  William Habington

  Country, Hate, Pride

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