Top 100 Not To Speak Quotes
#1. Lord Chesterfield advises his son "to speak often, but not to speak much at a time; so that if he does not please, he will not at least displease to any great extent."
Rousseau tells us, that, "persons who know little, talk a great deal, while those who know a great deal say very little.
Arthur Martine
#2. To independence!" added Pocked Louise. "No fussy old widows telling us when not to speak, and how to set the spoons when an earl's niece comes to supper. And telling us to leave scientific experiments to the men.
Julie Berry
#3. [W]e've learned that grief can sometimes get loud, and when it does, we try not to speak over it.
Bill Clegg
#4. Ye must leave righteous ways behind, not to speak of unrighteous ways.
Gautama Buddha
#5. When I'm writing a book, I prefer not to speak about it, because only when the book is finished can I try to understand what I've really done and to compare my intentions with the result.
Italo Calvino
#6. I don't like these cold, precise, perfect people, who, in order not to speak wrong, never speak at all, and in order not to do wrong, never do anything.
Henry Ward Beecher
#7. Do you see the irony at all, Tristan?'
I stare at him and shake my head. He seems determined not to speak again until I do. 'What irony?' I ask eventually, the words tumbling out in a hurried heap. 'That I am to be shot as a coward while you get to live as one.
John Boyne
#8. There is a silence. But sometimes it's as dangerous not to speak. "Yes,
Margaret Atwood
#9. Words said can never be recalled. So it is best, oftimes, not to speak too quickly. Yet words left unsaid are worse. We wear them like weights around our hearts.
Ann Rinaldi
#10. You must learn to follow privately the Lord's bidding: not to speak empty words, not to adorn yourself, always to obey authority, not to look at a woman with desire, not to be angry and much else.
Tito Colliander
#12. I try not to speak about all the charities and people I help, because I believe we can only be truly generous when we expect nothing in return.
Muhammad Ali
#13. Not to speak for Jason [Benjamin], but he's a straight married dude with two kids.
Lena Dunham
#14. Irreverence is a most necessary ingredient of religion. Not to speak of its importance in philosophy. Irreverence is the only way left to us for testing our universe.
Frank Herbert
#15. Such is the prestige of the Nobel Award and of this place where I stand that I am impelled, not to speak like a grateful and apologetic mouse, but to roar like a lion out of pride in my profession and in the great and good men who have practised it through the ages.
John Steinbeck
#16. I try not to speak to critics. It only encourages them.
-Snagglepuss
Mark Russell
#17. Not to speak would have infused the moment with more meaning than it deserved.
Galt Niederhoffer
#18. Even American women are not felt to be persons in the same sense as the male immigrants among the Hungarians, Poles, Russian Jews,
not to speak of Italians, Germans, and the masters of all of us
the Irish!
Mary Corinna Putnam Jacobi
#19. Agesilaus was very fond of his children; and it is reported that once toying with them he got astride upon a reed as upon a horse, and rode about the room; and being seen by one of his friends, he desired him not to speak of it till he had children of his own.
Plutarch
#20. For with G. D., to be absent from the body is sometimes (not to speak profanely) to be present with the Lord.
Charles Lamb
#21. One cannot read the New Testament without acquired admiration for whatever it abuses not to speak of the "wisdom of this world," which an impudent wind bag tries to dispose of "by the foolishness of preaching."
Friedrich Nietzsche
#22. I've always believed you can get closer to the truth by pretending not to speak it.
Armistead Maupin
#23. Mr President, I have decided not to speak the entire speech which I have.
Afonso Van-Dunem
#24. Once he has outgrown his youth, a man will rarely remain a prisoner to his insolence. He had thought it was the only way to behave; then he suddenly discovers that, even for a prince, there are such things as music, literature, not to speak of standing for the post of deputy.
Marcel Proust
#25. Undoubtedly, the U.S. harbors leading international terrorists, people described by the F.B.I. and the Justice Department as leading terrorists, like Orlando Bosch, now Posada Carriles, not to speak of those who actually implement state terrorism.
Noam Chomsky
#26. A good word is an easy obligation; but not to speak ill requires only our silence, which costs us nothing.
John Tillotson
#27. I am not to speak to you, I am to think of you when I sit alone or
wake at night alone,
I am to wait, I do not doubt I am to meet you again,
I am to see to it that I do not lose you.
Walt Whitman
#29. Yes, Doc, I'm not feeling too well.'
Which was true enough, Kwang Meng considered.
He had honestly not been feeling too well since he contracted poverty, loneliness, boredom, sexual frustration and periodic coughs and colds. Not to speak of his dreary job.
Goh Poh Seng
#30. If Kyan learned about Lucia's dream visit with Timotheus, he'd be furious. And since Lucia had quickly learned during their travels that the best kind of fire god was a calm fire god, she'd chosen not to speak a word of it to him. Still,
Morgan Rhodes
#31. She was one of those creatures which seem only not to speak because the mechanism of their mouth does not allow them to.
Leo Tolstoy
#32. With the help of the Holy Ghost, we can watch over ourselves. We can pray to recognize and reject the first thoughts of sin. We can pray to recognize a warning not to speak words which would hurt or tempt someone else. And we can, when we must, pray for the humility and the faith to repent.
Henry B. Eyring
#33. To write," Marguerite Duras remarked, "is also not to speak. It is to keep silent. It is to howl noiselessly.
Terry Tempest Williams
#34. Darya Alexandrovna made no reply. She suddenly felt that she had got far away from Anna; that there lay between them a barrier of questions on which they could never agree, and about which it was better not to speak.
Leo Tolstoy
#35. Chilo advised, "not to speak evil of the dead."
Diogenes
#36. My job is not done. I address my songs now to the third world. I am popular all over Asia and Africa and the Middle East, not to speak of South Africa, where I'm trying to go to see Nelson Mandela.
Nina Simone
#37. I want to tell her not to speak, want to say it, but her lips are on mine again and I taste me and I taste her and I don't taste what we're saying and I don't taste Noah. I taste Camus - I owe to such evenings the idea I have of innocence.
Hannah Moskowitz
#38. One of my favorite things to do is not to speak on screen. In theater it's different because there's a lot of emphasis on language - it's a different medium. But that is one of the most wonderful things about film. A person's face can say so much more than their voice can.
Linda Cardellini
#39. Wise women tuck Godly wisdom into the words they speak and even more into the words they choose not to speak.
Lysa TerKeurst
#40. People who say not to speak ill of the dead are hypocrites, because you can take it ot the bank they're thinking ill.
Nora Roberts
#42. Over time even two armed blind men in a room can do enormous damage to each other, not to speak of the room.
Henry A. Kissinger
#43. And since Lucia had quickly learned during tbeir travels that the best kind of fire god was a calm fire god, she'd chosen not to speak a word of it to him.
Morgan Rhodes
#44. Today, decide not to speak negatively about yourself. When you criticize yourself, you are criticizing God's very own creation.
Joel Osteen
#45. Was it all put into words, or did both understand that they had the same thing at heart and in their minds, so that there was no need to speak of it aloud, and better not to speak of it?
Fyodor Dostoyevsky
#46. When you are a media celebrity, every word you speak is dissected, as are those you choose not to speak.
Nancy Gibbs
#47. For human beings, not to speak is to die"
-from "The Word
Pablo Neruda
#48. Not to speak disparagingly of Justin Bieber or Rihanna, but they're not so hands-on with their image or their sound. They don't write the music. They have people doing things for them.
Lady Starlight
#49. Ordinary Muslims in Europe, who suffer from the demoralisation caused by living as perennial objects of suspicion and contempt, are far from thinking of themselves as a politically powerful, or even cohesive, community, not to speak of conquerors of Europe.
Pankaj Mishra
#50. How I understand the philosopher - as a terrible explosive, endangering everthing ... my concept of the philosopher is worlds removed from any concept that would include even a Kant, not to speak of academic "ruminants" and other professors of philosophy ...
Friedrich Nietzsche
#51. (...) Try not to speak ill of people in the future. You never know when they might be listening (...)
Stephen Lloyd Jones
#52. Wafa Wanaka, our elders say. Not only does this mean that death is the ultimate peace, it also means that we are not to speak ill of the dead. Once a person has crossed over to the real of the spirits, he takes his transgressions with him, and we speak only of the good. - 'Something Nice from London
Petina Gappah
#53. My admiration stranger within our gates, who hesitates not to speak the truth.
George S. Clason
#54. It is wonderful to contemplate how the planetary forces balance each other so perfectly that universal equilibrium is maintained despite the disturbances of the 1,500 millions which inhabit the Earth alone, not to speak of other spheres.
Max Heindel
#55. Do you expect to learn anything at Shiz?" he asked. "I have already learned not to speak to strangers." "Then I will introduce myself and we will be strangers no longer. I am Dillamond." "I am disinclined to know you.
Gregory Maguire
#56. It is impossible for us not to speak about what we have seen and heard.
Saint Peter
#57. This is slavery, not to speak one's thought.
Euripides
#58. I vow to serve, to pay my dues
And train myself for Legal use.
I vow to bear the Surplus shame
And repay Nature for the same
I vow to listen, not to speak;
To steel myself when I am weak.
I vow to work and most of all
To serve the State if it should call.
Gemma Malley
#59. It is easier not to speak a word at all than to speak more words than we should.
Thomas A Kempis
#60. Travelling, gentlemen, is medieval, today we have means of communication, not to speak of tomorrow and the day after, means of communication that bring the world into our homes, to travel from one place to another is atavistic.
Max Frisch
#61. If parents don't want to hear the truth, children learn not to speak it.
Nikki Sex
#62. Never listen to accounts of the frailty of others; and if anyone should complain to you of another, humbly ask him not to speak about him at all.
John Of The Cross
#63. Those who make antitheses by forcing the sense are like men who make false windows for the sake of symmetry. Their rule is not to speak justly, but to make accurate figures.
Blaise Pascal
#64. It seems to me that to take a book of mine into his hands is one of the rarest distinctions that anyone can confer upon himself. I even assume that he removes his shoes when he does so-not to speak of boots.
Friedrich Nietzsche
#65. If I am not mistaken, psychology, psychiatry and some branches of sociology, not to speak about the so-called philosophy of history, are even more affected by what I have called the scientistic prejudice, and by specious claims of what science can achieve.
Friedrich August Von Hayek
#66. Let our lives be firmly rooted in Truth. Abstain from lies. In this dark age of materialism, adherence to truth is the greatest austerity. We might have to tell lies now and then to protect somebody or to sustain dharma, but we must be careful not to speak lies for our own selfish purposes.
Mata Amritanandamayi
#67. Emerson, I am trying to live, as you said we must, the examined life. But there are days I wish there was less in my head to examine, not to speak of the busy heart.
Mary Oliver
#68. Even the closest relationships that I have I know could potentially fall away. That's not to speak pessimistically or negatively about those relationships. In a weird way, it's the opposite. I value them.
Mark Z. Danielewski
#69. I believe only in French culture and consider everything in Europe that calls itself 'culture' a misunderstanding, not to speak of German culture.
Friedrich Nietzsche
#70. Unfortunately, goodness and honor are rather the exception than the rule among exceptional men, not to speak of geniuses.
Cesare Lombroso
#71. They spoke politely and with deference to the adults, whereas it went against my nature not to speak plainly. To many people speaking plainly is the same as speaking rudely. Whereas to me, if one was direct, it saved time and misunderstanding.
Theresa Breslin
#72. I glance at the exit across the room. I want out. The bird in my chest is crashing up against its cage. I can feel the heavy thump, thump, thump of its feverish body inside and I open my mouth, not to speak, but to let the bird out so I can breathe.
Han Nolan
#73. I miss the closet. Homosexuals, not to speak of the rest of society, were far better off when social pressure forced them to hide their activities.
Ron Paul
#74. She looked at him like it physically hurt her not to speak, and yet she stayed silent.
Dennis Sharpe
#75. and life, seeing her own image, was still, and dared not to speak.
Oscar Wilde
#76. [In politics,] when there is no reason to speak, there is a reason not to speak.
David Frum
#77. Silence in the face of evil is evil itself: God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act. Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
#78. But courage was growing in me too. Little by little it was getting harder and harder for me not to speak out.
Anne Moody
#80. I ought not to speak about the dead because the dead are all over the place.
Harold Pinter
#81. Isaiah 55:6-13 God's ways and thoughts are infinitely higher than those of the most brilliant human. Yet His words in Scripture communicate well enough to bring about supernatural change in those who hear its truth. The purpose of communication is not to speak, but to be heard and understood.
Sid Buzzell
#82. philosophy teaches us to act, not to speak;
Seneca.
#83. We are in an era where censorship is creeping back in through the Patriot Act and where people are.. being intimidated not to speak about what we should be speaking about,.
Gerald Nicosia
#84. Sometimes it is better not to speak of what we see in our dreams. Sometimes our dreams belong only to us.
Terry Brooks
#85. One of the most effective ways for a system of authority to tout its virtues is not to speak of them directly, but to create a particularly vivid image of their absolute negation - of what it claims life would be like in the total absence of, say, patriarchal authority, or capitalism, or the state.
David Graeber
#86. It's the hardest thing for an actor not to speak because you take away their main tool. So for an actor, it's very frustrating and very challenging, and very few people can pull it off. Some actors can say a thousand words with just a look, and it's a unique gift.
Nicolas Winding Refn
#87. Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
#88. Euripides long ago said, 'who dares not speak his free thought is a slave.' I nominated myself as an 'infidel' as a challenge to thought for those who are asleep.
Luther Burbank
#89. Finally, I spoke of the necessity of recounting frankly every human experience, including, I said emphatically, what seems unsayable and what we do not speak of even to ourselves.
Elena Ferrante
#90. I go back and forth as to whether I think Nancy Pelosi's really this dumb or not. Although, every time I hear her speak I get closer and closer to concluding that she is this dumb.
Rush Limbaugh
#91. Flowers speak to us if we listen. Appreciating the blossom in hand or pausing in the garden to admire the beauty quiets our outer selves till we hear something new, something we did not hear before - the still, small voice of Nature herself.
Jean Hersey
#92. The biggest segment of our audience is 18 to 34, and, believe it or not, they still speak Spanish, and they still watch novellas and soccer games and news.
Randy Falco
#93. She knew that the world was not created to speak just to her, and yet, as with her son, sometimes things did.
Lorrie Moore
#94. Yes, I believe that the art of winning is through intimidation, and not necessarily do you have to speak about it.
Mark Spitz
#95. So, when there is a strife of tongues, at some meeting, the chairman, to obtain unity, suggests that every one shall speak in French. Perhaps it is bad French; French may not contain the words that express the speaker's thoughts; nevertheless speaking French imposes some order, some uniformity.
Virginia Woolf
#96. Hide in your heart a bitter thought, Still it has power to blight; Think Love, although you speak it not It gives the world more light.
Ella Wheeler Wilcox
#97. One may discover a new side to his most intimate friend when for the first time he hears him speak in public. He will be stranger to him as he is more familiar to the audience. The longest intimacy could not foretell how he would behave then
Henry David Thoreau
#98. Love is one of those topics that plenty of people try to write about but not enough try to do.
Criss Jami
#99. Opposites though they are, both solitude and solidarity are essential if the artist is to produce works that are not only significant to his or her age, but that will also speak to future generations.
Rollo May
#100. Do not meet or overtake a patient who is moving about in order to speak to him or to give him any message or letter. You might just as well give him a box on the ear. I have seen a patient fall flat on the ground who was standing when his nurse came into the room.
Florence Nightingale
