Really to live requires a great deal of love, a great feeling for silence, a great simplicity with an abundance of experience; it requires a mind that is capable of thinking very clearly, that is not bound by prejudice or superstition, by hope or fear.
—Jiddu Krishnamurti in Think on These Things
How old do you have to get before wisdom descends like a plastic bag over your head and you learn to keep your big mouth shut? Maybe never. Maybe you get more frivolous with age.
—Margaret Atwood
There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest.
—Elie Wiesel
Silence is one of the hardest arguments to refute.
—Josh Billings
The time to stop talking is when the other person nods his head affirmatively but says nothing.
—Henry S. Haskins
Silence propagates itself, and the longer talk has been suspended, the more difficult it is to find anything to say.
—Samuel Johnson
Lying is done with words, and also with silence.
—Adrienne Rich in Women and Honor
One of the lessons of history is that nothing is often a good thing to do and always a clever thing to say.
—Will Durant
Some people are uncomfortable with silences. Not me. I’ve never cared much for call and response. Sometimes I will think of something to say and then I ask myself: is it worth it? And it just isn’t.
—Miranda July in No One Belongs Here More Than You
Human beings have capitalized on the silence of animals, just as certain human beings have historically imposed silence on certain other human beings by denying slaves the right to literacy, denying women the right to own property, and denying both the right to vote.
—Gary Steiner
I have nothing to say, and I am saying it, and that is poetry.
—John Cage
Poets have been mysteriously silent on the subject of cheese.
—G. K. Chesterton
Drawing on my fine command of the English language, I said nothing.
—Robert Benchley
I spent a week at a Buddhist monastic retreat, where I sat silently for hours at a time in an uncomfortable position trying to shatter my ego. Why bother? Two minutes with my wife and kids does the same thing.
—Brian Koffman
The toughest part of being on a diet is shutting up about it.
—Gerland Nachman