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It’s easy to get lost in the noise of day to day life. These silence quotes will help you settle down, collect your thoughts, and calm your mind when you need to.
Silence is far more than the absence of noise. It can also be the presence of peace, clarity, and tranquility.
With literal and symbolic noise all around us, it’s important to take the time to embrace silence and use it for renewal, rather than seeking even more distraction.
Page Contents
Top 10 Silence Quotes
Speech is silver, silence is golden.
Thomas Carlyle
Silence is the sleep that nourishes wisdom.
Francis Bacon
PinSilence is better than unmeaning words.
Pythagoras
Silence is a source of great strength.
Lao Tzu
The world’s continual breathing is what we hear and call silence.
Clarice Lispector
Nothing strengthens authority so much as silence.
Leonardo da Vinci
PinSilence is a true friend who never betrays.
Confucius
When you have nothing to say, say nothing.
Charles Caleb Colton
Quotes about Silence
Silence is of different kinds, and breathes different meanings.
Charlotte Brontë
Silence is not the absence of something but the presence of everything.
Gordon Hempton
Listen to silence. It has so much to say.
Rumi
A fool is known by his speech; and a wise man by silence.
Pythagoras
Silence is foolish if we are wise, but wise if we are foolish.
Charles Caleb Colton
PinA man is known by the silence he keeps.
Oliver Hereford
Time and silence are the most luxurious things today.
Tom Ford
Let silence take you to the core of life.
Rumi
Silence and reserve will give anyone a reputation for wisdom.
Myrtle Reed
Now all my teachers are dead except silence.
W. S. Merwin
Never be bullied into silence.
Harvey Fierstein
Hope will never be silent.
Harvey Milk
Silence is the eternal duty of man.
Thomas Carlyle
Truth is not only violated by falsehood; it may be equally outraged by silence.
Henri Frederic Amiel
Work hard in silence, let your success make the noise.
Frank Ocean
PinSilence is pure and holy. It draws people together because only those who are comfortable with each other can sit without speaking.
Nicholas Sparks
I, schooled in misery, know many purifying rites, and I know where speech is proper and where silence.
Aeschylus
We need silence to be able to touch souls.
Mother Teresa
Real action is in silent moments.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
The things that we understand, create silence. The things that we do not, create emotion.
Kapil Gupta
If you’re asked: What is the silence? Respond: It is the first stone of the Wisdom’s temple.
Pythagoras
To sin by silence when they should protest makes cowards of men.
Abraham Lincoln
Your very silence shows you agree.
Euripides
Silence is one of the hardest arguments to refute.
Josh Billinngs
A heart worth loving is one you understand, even in silence.
Shannon L. Alder
PinIt is more noble by silence to avoid an injury than by argument to overcome it.
Francis Beaumont
The wisest man is the silent one. Examine his actions. Judge him by them.
Karen Marie Moning
When words become unclear, I shall focus with photographs. When images become inadequate, I shall be content with silence.
Ansel Adams
Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.
Martgin Luther King, Jr.
Silence is the wit of fools.
Anatole France
As far as I’m concerned, I prefer silent vice to ostentatious virtue.
Albert Einstein
Silence is something more than just a pause; it is that enchanted place where space is cleared and time is stayed and the horizon itself expands.
Pico Lyer
Silence about a thing just magnifies it.
Tennessee Williams
Silence is like a river of grace inviting us to leap unafraid into its beckoning depths.
Macrina Wiederkehr
It is not easy to keep silent when silence is a lie.
Victor Hugo
PinThe truth is silent. The truth doesn’t come with words. It’s something that I just know; it’s something that I can feel without words, and it’s called silent knowledge.
Don Miguel Ruiz
Silence is the virtue of fools.
Francis Bacon
Though silence is not necessarily an admission, it is not a denial, either.
Marcus Tullius Cicero
A fair request should be followed by the deed in silence.
Dante Alighieri
I’ve begun to realize that you can listen to silence and learn from it. It has a quality and a dimension all its own.
Chaim Potok
I have only one confidant, and that is the silence of night.
Soren Kierkegaard
Inner Silence
Space and silence are two aspects of the same thing. The same no-thing. They are externalization of inner space and inner silence, which is stillness: the infinitely creative womb of all existence.
Eckhart Tolle
External silence can be the doorway to inner silence.
Ram Dass
Silence is an empty space, space is the home of the awakened mind.
Buddha
The closer you are to the truth, the more silent you become inside.
Naval Ravikant
PinWithin us is the soul of the whole, the wise silence, the universal beauty, the eternal One.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Meditation is silence, energising and fulfilling. Silent is the eloquent expression of the inexpressible.
Sri Chinmoy
The moment you become aware of the silence, you also have become silent.
Eckhart Tolle
Withdraw into yourself, perceive there a silence as old as being, even older.
Emil Cioran
The eternal silence of these infinite spaces frightens me.
Blaise Pascal
We need silence to be able to reach our Self. Both internal and external silence is very important to feel the presence of that supreme Love.
Amit Ray
Silence is the great teacher, and to learn its lessons you must pay attention to it. There is no substitute for the creative inspiration, knowledge, and stability that come from knowing how to contact your core of inner silence.
Deepak Chopra
Dive into your heart center. Sit in the silence. Desire self-realization with all your heart, with all your mind, and all your soul. Everything will take care of itself.
Robert Adams
Choose silence of all virtues, for by it you hear other men’s imperfections, and conceal your own.
George Bernard Shaw
Within each of us, there is silence. A silence as vast as the universe. And when we experience that silence, we remember who we are.
Gunilla Norris
PinSilence fertilizes the deep place where personality grows. A life with a peaceful center can weather all storms.
Norman Vincent Peale
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.
Henry David Thoreau
Silence and Sound
Sound is our mind, silence is our being.
Osho
Silence is so freaking loud.
Sarah Dessen
Noise: a stench in the ear.
Ambrose Bierce
Silence is a profound melody, for those who can hear it above all the noise.
Socrates
Silence was not the absence of sound but was itself a sound that could be loud or soft, soothing or disturbing, complex or simple.
Julius Lester
The music is not in the notes, but in the silence between.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Silence is exhilarating at first – as noise is – but there is a sweetness to silence outlasting exhilaration, akin to the sweetness of listening and the velvet of sleep.
Edward Hoagland
Silence is more musical than any song.
Christina Rossetti
PinAfter silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music.
Aldous Huxley
Let us be silent, that we may hear the whispers of the gods.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
It all adds up to one thing: peace, silence, solitude. The world and its noise are out of sight and far away. Forest and field, sun and wind and sky, earth and water, all speak the same language.
Thomas Merton
Silence and Communication
Well-timed silence is the most commanding expression.
Mark Helprin
Silence is also a conversation.
Ramana Maharshi
The most significant conversations of our lives occur in silence.
Simon Van Booy
Silence is one of the great arts of conversation.
Marcus Tullius Cicero
Silence is safer than speech.
Epictetus
Silence can often be more disturbing than noise, it reveals the complicated mechanism of our thoughts.
José Rodrigues Miguéis
PinWe will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.
Martgin Luther King, Jr.
Silence is a statement that is open to gross misinterpretation.
Craig Bruce
Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.
Abraham Lincoln
Speech is of time, silence is of eternity.
Thomas Carlyle
One must learn to be silent just as one must learn to talk.
Virginia Woolf
Lions don’t have to roar. There is power in silence, confidence, and persistence. Those who work don’t talk, and those who talk don’t work.
Les Brown
Speak for yourself and from yourself, or be silent.
George Henry Lewes
Blessed is the man who, having nothing to say, abstains from giving us wordy evidence of the fact.
Susan Sontag
Words can sting like anything, but silence breaks the heart.
Phyllis McGinley
When I speak, you must not listen to the words, my dear. Listen to the silence.
Anthony de Mello
PinOnly he who knows how to speak can be silent.
Jean-Paul Sartre
I often regret that I have spoken; never that I have been silent.
Publilius Syrus
He who does not understand your silence will probably not understand your words.
Elbert Hubbard
Don’t waste words on people deserve your silence. Sometimes the most powerful thing you can say is nothing at all.
Mandy Hale
Blessed is the man who, having nothing to say, abstains from giving us wordy evidence of the fact.
George Eliot
Speak only if it improves upon the silence.
Mahatma Gandhi
In human intercourse the tragedy begins, not when there is misunderstanding about words, but when silence is not understood.
Henry David Thoreau
Silence is only frightening to people who are compulsively verbalizing.
William S. Burroughs
As we must account for every idle word, so must we account for every idle silence.
Benjamin Franklin
Keep silence for the most part, and speak only when you must, and then briefly.
Epictetus
PinBe silent, if you choose; but when it is necessary, speak – and speak in such a way that people will remember it.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Speaking comes by nature, silence by understanding.
German Proverb
The true genius shudders at incompleteness – and usually prefers silence to saying something which is not everything it should be.
Edgar Allan Poe
Wise men, when in doubt whether to speak or to keep quiet, give themselves the benefit of the doubt, and remain silent.
Napoleon Hill
It’s very important in life to know when to shut up. You should not be afraid of silence.
Alex Trebek
Silence is as deep as eternity, speech as shallow as time.
Thomas Carlyle
The silence often of pure innocence persuades when speaking fails.
William Shakespeare
Be silent or let thy words be worth more than silence.
Pythagoras
Silence, when nothing need be said, is the eloquence of discretion.
Christian Nestell Bovee
Drawing on my fine command of language, I said nothing.
Mark Twain
PinIt is a great thing to know the season for speech and the season for silence.
Seneca, The Elder
Silence propagates itself, and the longer talk has been suspended, the more difficult it is to find anything to say.
Samuel Johnson
Remember not only to say the right thing in the right place, but far more difficult still, to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment.
Benjamin Franklin
Ten people who speak make more noise than ten thousand who are silent.
Napoleon Bonaparte
The Benefits of Silence
Nothing is more useful than silence.
Menander
Silence is the safest course for any man to adopt who distrust himself.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
If there were a little more silence, if we all kept quiet…maybe we could understand something.
Federico Fellini
I think 99 times and find nothing. I stop thinking, swim in silence, and the truth comes to me.
Albert Einstein
If I could I would always work in silence and obscurity, and let my efforts be known by their results.
Emily Bronte
I’ve begun to realize that you can listen to silence and learn from it. It has a quality and a dimension all its own.
Chaim Potok
PinThe more you understand silence, that’s where the balance comes.
Rick Rubin
Silence is sometimes the best answer.
Dalai Lama
I think the first virtue is to restrain the tongue; he approaches nearest to gods who knows how to be silent, even though he is in the right.
Cato The Elder
Be silent and safe—silence never betrays you.
John Boyle O’Reilly
A sage thing is timely silence, and better than any speech.
Plutarch
In the silence behind what can be heard lies the answers we have been searching for for so long.
Andreas Fransson
If you spend enough time with yourself in silence, you’ll be surprised what goes through your head.
Sandra Bullock
In silence there is eloquence. Stop weaving and see how the pattern improves.
Rumi
The right word may be effective, but no word was ever as effective as a rightly timed pause.
Mark Twain
The truth hurts, but silence kills.
Mark Twain
Silence is golden when you can’t think of a good answer.
Muhammad Ali
PinA sudden silence in the middle of a conversation suddenly brings us back to essentials: it reveals how dearly we must pay for the invention of speech.
Emile M. Cioran
Silence is the ultimate weapon of power.
Charles de Gaulle
If you face God in prayer and silence, God will speak to you. Then you will know that you are nothing. It is only when you realize your nothingness, your emptiness, that God can fill you with Himself. Souls of prayer are souls of great silence.
Mother Teresa
Never forget the power of silence, that massively disconcerting pause which goes on and on and may last induce an opponent to babble and backtrack nervously.
Lance Morrow
In silence man can most readily preserve his integrity.
Meister Eckhart
Learn to get in touch with the silence within yourself and know that everything in this life has a purpose.
Elizabeth Kubler-Ross
The space, the gaps, the pauses, the silence – those things that allow us to regenerate and recharge – had all but disappeared in my own life and in the lives of so many I knew.
Arianna Huffington
Silence gives us space to process our experiences and soak in our surroundings.
Cati Vanden Breul
I would like to spend the rest of my days in a place so silent–and working at a pace so slow–that I would be able to hear myself living.
Elizabeth Gilbert
Experience teaches us that silence terrifies people the most.
Bob Dylan
Silence. You must learn that art, it is the only way to survive.
Fyodor Dostoyevsky
PinIn the attitude of silence the soul finds the path in a clearer light, and what is elusive and deceptive resolves itself into crystal clearness.
Mahatma Gandhi
Listen to the silence inside the illusion of the world, and you will remember the lesson you forgot.
Jack Kerouac
Silence is the element in which great things fashion themselves together.
Thomas Carlyle
Make peace with silence, and remind yourself that it is in this space that you’ll come to remember your spirit. When you’re able to transcend an aversion to silence, you’ll also transcend many other miseries.
Wayne Dyer
Silence, healing.
Heraclitus
By silence, I hear other men’s imperfections and conceal my own.
Citium Zeno
Since long I’ve held silence a remedy for harm.
Aeschylus
You can hear the footsteps of God when silence reigns in the mind.
Sathya Sai Baba
To look at life without words is not to lose the ability to form words- to think, remember, and plan. To be silent is not to lose your tongue. On the contrary, it is only through silence that one can discover something new to talk about.
Alan Watts
In the silence of listening, you can know yourself in everyone, the unseen singing softly to itself and to you.
Rachel Naomi Remen
Being Quiet Quotes
The good and the wise lead quiet lives.
Euripides
PinI was quiet, but I was not blind.
Jane Austen
Do not underestimate the determination of a quiet man.
Iain Duncan Smith
One need not always be saying something in this noisy world.
Sarah Orne Jewett
If you sit quiet long enough, you find out what people really think.
Carol Bartz
The quieter you become the more you are able to hear.
Rumi
When you’re comfortable with someone, you don’t need to always fill the void with noise.
Elizabeth Eulberg
We need quiet time to examine our lives openly and honestly – spending quiet time alone gives your mind an opportunity to renew itself and create order.
Susann L. Taylor
Take time to be quiet.
Zig Ziglar
Quiet people have the loudest minds.
Stephen Hawking
When your work speaks for itself, don’t interrupt.
Henry J. Kaiser
Sometimes it is the quiet observer who sees the most.
Kathryn L. Nelson
You see things. You keep quiet about them. And you understand.
Stephen Cbosky
PinAll men’s miseries derive from not being able to sit in a quiet room alone.
Blaise Pascal
A happy life must be to a great extent a quiet life, for it is only in an atmosphere of quiet that true joy dare live.
Bertrand Russell
Quiet people always know more than they seem.
Criss Jami
If people would only talk about what they understood, Earth would be a very quiet place.
Albert Einstein
Deep rivers run quiet.
Haruki Murakami
A circle of lovely, quiet people becomes the ring on my finger.
Rumi
An inability to stay quiet is one of the conspicuous failings of mankind.
Walter Bagehot
Quietness Quotes
Quietness is the beginning of virtue. To be silent is to be beautiful. Stars do not make a noise.
James Stephens
All that is important comes in quietness and waiting.
Patrick Lindsay
Only in quietness do we possess our own minds and discover the resources of the Inner Life.
Helen Keller
PinMy heart is tuned to the quietness that the stillness of nature inspires.
Hazrat Inayat Khan
All noise is waste. So cultivate quietness in your speech, in your thoughts, in your emotions.
Elbert Hubbard
Everything has its wonders, even darkness and silence, and I learn whatever state I am in, therein to be content.
Helen Keller
It is better in prayer to have a heart without words than words without a heart.
Mahatma Gandhi
Quiet Minds
A quiet mind cureth all.
Robert Burton
The quiet mind is richer than a crown.
Robert Greene
Quieting your mind is the doorway to a peaceful soul.
Clyde Lee Denis
Quiet minds cannot be perplexed or frightened but go on in fortune or misfortune at their own private pace, like a clock during a thunderstorm.
Robert Louis Stevenson
If we have not quiet in our minds, outward comfort will do no more for us than a golden slipper on a gouty foot.
John Bunyan
It’s important to have quiet time and isolation.
John Burnside
PinNowhere can a man find a quieter or more untroubled retreat than in his own soul.
Marcus Aurelius
Simply wait, be quiet, still, and solitary. The world will freely offer itself to you.
Franz Kafka
Learn to be quiet enough to hear the genuine within yourself so that you can hear it in others.
Marian Wright Edelman
Only in quiet waters do thing mirror themselves undistorted. Only in a quiet mind is adequate perception of the world.
Hans Margolius
We hope these silence quotes gave you a new appreciation of silence and all its benefits.
Quiet time isn’t just for kids! Learning to embrace the silence within is a key component of meditation and self-awareness.
Even if you just want to be more relaxed and composed, silence can calm your mind and renew your spirit.
Turning down the noise within and without is a great way to be more composed and centered. So turn it all down when you need to, and enjoy some quiet today.
