Silence quotes
2.7K quotes on this topic — from poets, philosophers, and thinkers across history.
Explore further
Browse quotes that often appear alongside silence — connected by shared ideas and recurring themes.
Quote collection
Follow a thought to its author, or read the full quote page.
"The growing drama has outgrown such toys Of simulated stature, face, and speech: It also peradventure may outgrow The simulation of the painted scene, Boards, actors, prompters, gaslight, and costume, And take for a worthier stage the soul itself, Its shifting fancies and celestial lights, With all its grand orchestral silences To keep the pauses of its rhythmic sounds."
"Silence and chaste reserve is woman's genuine praise, and to remain quiet within the house."
"Silence is the universal refuge, the sequel to all dull discourses and all foolish acts, a balm to our every chagrin, as welcome after satiety as after disappointment; that background which the painter may not daub, be he master or bungler, and which, however awkward a figure we may have made in the foreground, remains ever our inviolable asylum, where no indignity can assail, no personality can disturb us."
"Experience teaches us that silence terrifies people the most."
"Silence is never-ending speech. Vocal speech obstructs the other speech of silence. In silence one is in intimate contact with the surroundings. Language is only a medium for communicating one's thoughts to another. Silence is ever speaking."
"Every being cries out in silence to be read differently. Do not be indifferent to these cries."
"Meditation is the journey from sound to silence, from movement to stillness, from a limited identity to unlimited space."
"There is nothing mind can do that cannot be better done in the mind's immobility and thought-free stillness. When mind is still, then truth gets her chance to be heard in the purity of the silence."
"Truth to tell, we are all criminals if we remain silent."
"Music is the framework around the silence."
"Silence is an empty space, space is the home of the awakened mind."
"Let silence take you to the core of life."
"The human heart has hidden treasures, In secret kept, in silence sealed; The thoughts, the hopes, the dreams, the pleasures, Whose charms were broken if revealed."
"Sometimes the silence can be like thunder."
"An Irishman needs three things : silence, cunnning, and exile."
"No one has ever successfully painted or photographed a redwood tree. The feeling they produce is not transferable. From them comes silence and awe"
"If you feel blocked, do not turn to others, but look inside, in silence, for the enemy of your progress."
"Finding Nirvana is like locating silence."
"A Conspiracy of silence speaks louder than words."
"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."
