Top 70 When To Be Silent Quotes
#1. On a ship, knowing when to be silent is just as important as knowing when to speak.
J.Z. Colby
#2. He knows not when to be silent who knows not when to speak.
Publilius Syrus
#3. We should observe the place, the occasion, the temper in which we find the person who listens to us, for if there is much art in speaking to the purpose, there is no less in knowing when to be silent.
Francois De La Rochefoucauld
#4. Be slow to speak, and only after having first listened quietly, so that you may understand the meaning, leanings, and wishes of those who do speak. Thus you will better know when to speak and when to be silent.
Saint Ignatius
#5. Without tact you can learn nothing. Tact teaches you when to be silent. Inquirers who are always questioning never learn anything.
Benjamin Disraeli
#7. When I was supposed to be awake, I was asleep. When I was supposed to sleep, I was silent. When a pleasure offered itself to me, I avoided it.
Susanna Kaysen
#8. When the urge arises in your mind To feelings of desire or angry hate, Do not act! Be silent, do not speak! And like a log of wood be sure to stay.
Santideva
#10. Freedom means the capability to say yes when yes is needed, to say no when no is needed, and sometimes to keep quiet when nothing is needed - to be silent, not to say anything. When all these dimensions are available, there is freedom.
Rajneesh
#11. When you feel the assaults of passion and anger, then is the time to be silent as Jesus was silent in the midst of His ignominies and sufferings.
Paul Of The Cross
#12. When we begin to fret and be uneasy, we ought to consider that God hears all our murmurings, though silent, and only the murmurings of the heart.
Matthew Henry
#13. Be true to Love.
Do not betray Her.
Then, on the day
that the forest of the mind
bursts into flames,
you will not run.
You will remain silent and still;
for this is when Love bears
Her sweetest fruit:
untouched Presence.
Mooji
#14. True meditation is a state of profound and deep peace that comes when the mind is calm and silent, yet totally alert. True meditation takes you to a higher state of awareness and enables you to fulfill who you were meant to be.
Stewart Osbourne
#15. When you got a question," Polly said before Granada could ask, "first be silent. Look around you. Let creation speak the truth to you." She
Jonathan Odell
#16. Writing as a creative art flourishes only when there are no rules. Rules stifle you from entering the silent and forbidden spaces where the core of the story is waiting to be revealed.
Gloria D. Gonsalves
#17. When I sound the fairy call, gather here in silent meeting,
Chin to knee on the orchard wall, cooled with dew and cherries eating.
Merry, merry, take a cherry, mine are sounder, mine are rounder,
Mine are sweeter for the eater, when the dews fall, and you'll be fairies all.
Emily Dickinson
#19. One never knows when and why such people start talking; frequently they only open their mouths because they realize they haven't said anything yet, or because they're worried that if they continue to remain silent they will be regarded as insignificant.
Timur Vermes
#20. To speak or to be silent was equally an effort, for when they were silent they were keenly conscious of each other's presence, and yet words were either too trivial or too large.
Virginia Woolf
#21. [On the camel:] When it kneels to be laden it always grumbles, growls and shows resentment, but of this the driver takes no notice. He goes on loading up until the moment when the beast suddenly becomes silent; then he knows that the burden is heavy enough, and nothing more is added.
Mildred Cable
#22. Modesty is silent when it would be improper to speak; the humble, without being called upon, never recollects to say anything of himself.
Johann Kaspar Lavater
#23. Good writing can be defined as having something to say and saying it well. When one has nothing to say, one should remain silent. Silence is always beautiful at such times.
Edward Abbey
#24. When my film went to the Venice Film Festival and won the best script writing, the jury [prize], it didn't go to my head. I know how many black filmmakers that I am operating with whose name will never be mentioned. But I'm part of them in that silent existence.
Haile Gerima
#25. It would be of great use to us to form our deliberate judgments of persons and things in the calmest and serenest hours of life, when the passions of nature are all silent, and the mind enjoys its most perfect composure.
Isaac Watts
#26. The one thing she liked most about Henry Clinton was that he let her be silent when she wanted to be. She did not have to entertain him.
Harper Lee
#28. To be silent when we are impelled to utter words injurious to God or to our neighbour, is an act of virtue; but, to be silent in confessing our sins, is the ruin of the soul.
Alphonsus Liguori
#29. When I think of God's Kingdom, I am compelled to be silent because of its immensity, because God's Kingdom is none other than God himself with all His riches.
Meister Eckhart
#30. I feel now that the time is come when even a woman or a child who can speak a word for freedom and humanity is bound to speak ... I hope every woman who can write will not be silent.
Harriet Beecher Stowe
#31. It's awkward and silent as I wait for you to say, what I need to hear now, your sincere apology. When you mean it, I'll believe it, if you text it I'll delete, let's be clear. Oh, I'm not coming back, you're taking 7 steps here ...
Miley Cyrus
#32. Likewise, if we offer too much silent assent about mysticism and superstition - even when it seems to be doing a little good - we abet a general climate in which scepticism is considered impolite, science tiresome, and rigorous thinking somehow stuffy and inappropriate.
Carl Sagan
#33. To feel free, create a fog around yourself! And how can you do this? Be silent! When you are silent, people will not notice you much! You will be invisible, you will be inside the fog!
Mehmet Murat Ildan
#34. I get tired of talking when I want to be silent.
Henry Rollins
#35. Do not keep silent when your own ideas and values are being attacked. If a dictatorship ever comes to this country, it will be by the fault of those who keep silent. We are still free enough to speak. Do we have time? No one can tell.
Ayn Rand
#36. Fear makes you silent when you need to be loud and loud when you need silence.
Elizabeth Vaughan
#37. Another note to self; turn cellphone to silent when you're trying to be sneaky.
Suzie Ivy
#38. Monstrous, unnatural, colossal, was the thing - too far beyond all the ideas of man to be believed except in the silent damnable small hours of the morning when one cannot sleep.
H.P. Lovecraft
#39. But life had shifted its weight from one point to another, from one leg to the other, like a silent giant in the vast shadows against the ridge, and I did not feel like the person I had been when this day began, and I did not even know if that was something to be sorry for.
Per Petterson
#40. They were more severely infected than the men, because while men were always getting furious, they calmed down in the end; women, who appeared to be silent, acquiescent, when they were angry flew into a rage that had no end.
Elena Ferrante
#41. And why did everyone persist in thinking the mute was exactly as they wanted him to be
when most likely it was all a very queer mistake? ... In the battling tumult of voices he alone was silent.
Carson McCullers
#42. It is a sin to be silent when it is your duty to protest.
Abraham Lincoln
#43. Be mine that silent calm repast,
A conscience cheerful to the last:
That tree which bears immortal fruit,
Without a canker at the root;
That friend which never fails the just,
When other friends desert their trust.
Nathaniel Cotton
#44. When we want to talk, we can instead listen, and let our attentiveness to another's need to speak be our silent statement.
Bryant McGill
#45. And did with sighs their fate deplore,
Since I must shelter them no more;
And if before my joys were such,
In having heard, and seen too much,
My grief must be as great and high,
When all abandoned I shall be,
Doomed to a silent destiny.
Aphra Behn
#46. If any man think it a small matter, or of mean concernment, to bridle his tongue, he is much mistaken; for it is a point to be silent when occasion requires, and better than to speak, though never so well.
Plutarch
#47. It will often be a question when a man is or is not wise in advancing unpalatable opinions, or in preaching heresies; but it can never be a question that a man should be silent if unprepared to speak the truth as he conceives it.
George Henry Lewes
#48. Sometimes when we say "God is silent," what's really going on is that he hasn't told the story the way we wanted it told. He will be silent when we want him to fill in the blanks of the story we are creating. But with his own stories, the ones we live in, he is seldom silent.
Paul E. Miller
#49. It wasn't the same as when other men called me beautiful. With them, it meant I'd be donning knee pads. With Frank, it meant uncomfortable silence. And the last thing I wanted was for Frank to be uncomfortable or silent.
Nicole Castle
#50. Hear this if you can:
If you want to reach him
You have to go beyond yourself
And when you finally arrive at the land of absence
Be silent
Don't say a thing
Ecstasy, not words, is the language spoken there
Rumi
#51. How can you expect God to speak in that gentle and inward voice which melts the soul, when you are making so much noise with your rapid reflections? Be silent and God will speak again.
Francois Fenelon
#52. But when weariness finally forced him to be silent, he was no longer of use to his tormentors, and they sought amusement elsewhere
Mark Twain
#53. When we speak we are afraid our words will not be heard or welcomed. But when we are silent, we are still afraid. So it is better to speak.
Audre Lorde
#54. Poetry listens to me when I am silent and understands me when no one else seems to be able to.
Delano Johnson
#55. While doing centering prayer, the practice is to let go of any thought or perception. The priority is to be as silent as possible and when that is not possible to let the noise of the thoughts be the sacred symbol for a while, without analyzing them.
Thomas Keating
#56. Let there be but two occasions for speech - when the subject is one which you thoroughly know and when it is one on which you are compelled to speak. On these occasions alone is speech better than silence; on all others, it is better to be silent than to speak.
Isocrates
#57. On the road to your target, move cleverly and silently; when you reached your target, be humble and silent!
Mehmet Murat Ildan
#58. It is my view that it is a big embarrassment for Africa . It is hypocritical for African leaders to talk about democracy and human rights and to be silent when these things are happening in Zimbabwe .
Raila Odinga
#59. When these incorrigible talkers are compelled to be quiet, is it not evident that they are not silent because they are listening to what is said, but because they are thinking of what they themselves shall say when they can seize the first lucky interval, for which they are so narrowly watching?
Hannah More
#60. Of course, you can't force your mind to be silent. That would be like trying to smooth ripples in water with a flatiron. Water becomes clear and calm only when left alone.
Alan Watts
#61. When led of the Spirit, the child of God must be as ready to wait as to go, as prepared to be silent as to speak.
Lewis Sperry Chafer
#62. Don't try to convince anyone of anything. When you don't know something, ask or go away and find out. But when you do act, be like the silent, flowing river and open yourself to a greater energy. Believe
that's what I said at our first meeting
simply believe that you can.
Paulo Coelho
#63. When everything in your life is silent, enjoy the quietness of your mind. This is the place of peace, a sacred place, and a time for reflection, a time to be guided on the path of your journey ...
James A. Murphy
#64. When I take up my pen to write, I feel the strength of standing up and refusing to be silent. In an oppressive situation, silence is death.
Chenjerai Hove
#65. In the weak, lack of strength to defend oneself passes over into complaining. This can be observed in children when they are mistreated by bigger children; but the best always stay obstinately and defiantly silent.
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
#66. [M]editation is not just being silent - that is only one part of it ... [I]t has to be creative. And when a poetry comes out of your inner silences, or a painting, it has a flavor which is not of this world.
Rajneesh
#67. And when we speak we are afraid
our words will not be heard
nor welcomed
but when we are silent
we are still afraid
So it is better to speak
remembering
we were never meant to survive
Audre Lorde
#68. They had a silent staring contest, but Percy didn't back down. When he and Annabeth started dating, his mother had drummed it into his head: It's good manners to walk your date to the door. If that was true, it had to be good manners to walk her to the start of her epic solo death quest.
Rick Riordan
#69. She did not especially appreciate children either, but could be kind to them when they were silent.
Gordon Dahlquist
#70. When the south wing collapses, there could be flying debris," Father remarked. "Any one of us could be injured." He sounded very cheerful about this. 'Best to stop on our way home and see the Silent Brothers.
Cassandra Clare
