Taciturn Quotes

• I am naturally taciturn, and became a silent and attentive listener.

  William Hamilton Maxwell

  Quiet, Silent, Listeners

  William Hamilton Maxwell (1833). “Stories of Waterloo”, p.4

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• There are many Welsh who are taciturn, truthful, well formed, open minded, handsome and peaceful, even if no particular individual immediately springs to mind.

  Auberon Waugh

  Spring, Peaceful, Mind

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• Nature is garrulous to the point of confusion, let the artist be truly taciturn.

  Paul Klee

  Nature, Artist, Confusion

  Paul Klee (1964). “The Diaries of Paul Klee, 1898-1918”, p.236, Univ of California Press

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• The observations and encounters of a solitary, taciturn man are vaguer and at the same times more intense than those of a sociable man; his thoughts are deeper, odder and never without a touch of sadness. Images and perceptions that could be dismissed with a glance, a laugh, an exchange of opinions, occupy him unduly, become more intense in the silence, become significant, become an experience, an adventure, an emotion. Solitude produces originality, bold and astonishing beauty, poetry. But solitude also produces perverseness, the disproportionate, the absurd and the forbidden.

  Thomas Mann

  Adventure, Sadness, Men

  Thomas Mann (2012). “Death in Venice & A Man and His Dog: A Dual-Language Book”, p.101, Courier Corporation

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• Nefarious. This is what we get when we hire a Yale boy.” “You missed sacrosanct earlier. And taciturn and glowering,” Jack said. “What’s glowering?” “Me, apparently.” Wilkins pointed. “Now that has to be a joke.” He turned to Davis. “You heard that, right?” Davis didn’t answer him, having spun his chair around to type something at his computer. “Let’s see what Google says… Ah – here it is. ‘Glowering: dark; showing a brooding ill humor.

  Julie James

  Dark, Boys, Yale

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• Like them you are tall and taciturn, and you are sad, all at once, like a voyage.

  Pablo Neruda

  Voyages, Tall

  Pablo Neruda (2015). “The Poetry of Pablo Neruda”, p.13, Macmillan

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• It is a mistake for a taciturn, serious-minded woman to marry a jovial man, but not for a serious-minded man to marry a lighthearted woman.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Mistake, Women, Serious

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• The dead keep their secrets, and in a while we shall be as wise as they - and as taciturn.

  Alexander Smith

  Wise, Keeping Secrets, Secret

  Alexander Smith (1863). “Dreamthorp: A Book of Essays Written in the Country”, p.65

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• None love to speak so much, when the mood of speaking comes, as they who are naturally taciturn.

  Henry Ward Beecher

  Speech, Speak, One Love

  Henry Ward Beecher (1871). “Morning and Evening Exercises: Selected from the Published and Unpublished Writings”, p.55

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• We are each of an unsocial, taciturn disposition, unwilling to speak, unless we expect to say something that will amaze the whole room, and be handed down to posterity with all the eclat of a proverb.

  Jane Austen

  Rooms, Speak, Disposition

  Jane Austen (1853). “Pride and Prejudice”, p.81

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• Her laugh was sad and taciturn, seemingly detached from any feeling of the moment, like something she kept in the cupboard and took out only when she had to, using it with no feeling of ownership, as if the infrequency of her smiles had made her forget the normal way to use them.

  Gabriel Garcia Marquez

  Laughing, Feelings, Use

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• Time Management Tips: One can make a radar-like sweep of the horizon to identify time and task challenges while these are still manageable and while we still have a choice. The organizational adage, "the more parts, the more trouble," also applies to words. Multiplying words may actually multiply the probability of being misunderstood; economies in expression (without being taciturn or aloof) not only save time, but usually are more honest and more clear.

  Neal A. Maxwell

  Expression, Choices, Challenges

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• I take this for myself, and you take up the thread of my life between your teeth, tin thread and tarnished with abuse, you shall still hear as long as the beast in me maintains its taciturn power to close my lids in tears, and my loins move yet in the ennobling pursuit of all the worlds you have left me alone in, and would be the dolorous distraction from, while you summon your army of anguishes which is a million hooting blood vessels on the eyes and in the ears at that instant before death.

  Frank O'Hara

  Moving, Eye, Army

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• As anyone who has the slightest knowledge of my work knows, I have little in common with Larkin, who was tall, taciturn and thin-on-top, and unlike him I laugh, nay, sneer, in the face of death. I will concede one point: we are both lesbian poets.

  Carol Ann Duffy

  Laughing, Littles, Faces

  "Winning Lines". Interview with Peter Forbes, www.theguardian.com. August 31, 2002.

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• To how many blockheads of my time has a cold and taciturn demeanor procured the credit of prudence and capacity!

  Michel de Montaigne

  Credit, Cold, Gravity

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• Murray sounds like a blindfolded man riding a unicycle on the rim of the pit of doom, the men actually facing the danger are all so taciturn that you might as well try interviewing the cars themselves.

  Clive James

  Men, Car, Trying

  Clive James (1983). “Glued to the box: television criticism from the Observer, 1979-82”, Jonathan Cape

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• Nature can afford to be prodigal in everything, the artist must be frugal down to the last detail. Nature is garrulous to the point of confusion, let the artist be truly taciturn.

  Paul Klee

  Artist, Confusion, Details

  Diary entry for 1909, No. 857. "The Diaries of Paul Klee, 1898-1918", p. 236, 1968.

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