Sayings about Silence
Don’t talk unless you can improve the silence. ~ Vermont Proverb
Silent water is dangerous water. ~ Spanish Proverb
The right answer to a fool is silence. ~ Afghan Proverb
Silence is a cure for grief. ~ Arabian Proverb
If a man’s mouth were silent, then another part would speak. ~ Arabian Proverb
The fruit of silence is tranquility. ~ Arabian Proverb
Love and let the world know, hate in silence. ~ Egyptian Proverb
The newborn baby yells; you die in silence. ~ Russian Proverb
A silent woman is a gift from God. ~ French Proverb
Silence is the best answer to the stupid. The fool has his answer on the tip of his tongue. ~ Arabian Proverb
Silence heals all ills. ~ Hebrew Proverb
Only the dumb can silence the chatterer. ~ Georgian Proverbs
A silent man is not a conquered man. ~ Russian Proverb
Silence implies consent. ~ Traditional Proverb
Where gold speaks every tongue is silent. ~ Italian Proverb
Beware of silent dogs and still waters. ~ Portuguese Proverb
Silence is golden. ~ English Proverb
To silence another, first be silent yourself. ~ Latin Proverbs
Either remain quiet, or say things that improve the silence. ~ Greek Proverb
The tree of silence bears the fruits of peace. ~ Arabian Proverb
Even silence is an answer. ~ Romanian Proverb
Silence makes irritation grow. ~ Japanese Proverb
There is a time to speak and a time to be silent. ~ English Proverb
Silence is sometimes the answer. ~ Estonian Proverbs
Speaking comes by nature, silence by understanding. ~ German Proverb
Silence in woman is like speech in man. ~ Ben Jonson
Often there is eloquence in a silent gaze. ~ Latin Proverb
Look and keep silent, and if you are eating meat, tell the world it’s fish. ~ Arabian Proverb
I grew up among wise men and found that there is nothing better for man than silence. ~ Sierra Leonean Proverbs
The poor are the silent of the land. ~ Iraqi Proverb
A fool who can keep silent is counted among the wise. ~ Yiddish Proverbs
Wisdom consists of ten parts: nine parts silence and one part a few words. ~ Arabian Proverb
Silence gives rise to peace and with peace comes security. ~ African Proverb
Silence is more than just a lack of words. ~ Egyptian Proverb
Silence is a brother of delight. ~ Islamic Proverb
Silence is music to a wise man. ~ Turkish Proverb
If you want to annoy the devil stay silent. ~ Bulgarian Proverb
A silent mouth is sweet to hear ~ Irish Quote
Silent men like still waters, are deep and dangerous. ~ Traditional Proverbs
Speech is silver; silence is golden. ~ Swiss Proverb
In the young, silence is better than speech. ~ Greek Proverb
Silence is a fence around wisdom. ~ German Proverb
A fool is like all other men as long as he remains silent. ~ Danish Proverb
Silence is the interpreter of happiness. ~ Arabian Proverb
Fear a silent man. He has lips like a drum. ~ Beninese Proverb
The belly is like a judge that is silent yet still asks questions. ~ Russian Proverb
You must keep quiet or say only things that improve silence. ~ Greek Proverb
Silence is a wonderful jewel for a woman but she seldom wears it. ~ Danish Proverb
A judge and a stomach do their asking in silence. ~ Russian Proverb
Our parents taught us to speak and the world taught us to be silent. ~ Czech Proverb
The spoken word sometimes loses what silence has won. ~ Spanish Proverb
We must have reasons for speech but we need none for silence. ~ French Proverb
Silence is the fence around wisdom. ~ Yiddish Proverb
It is the calm and silent water that drowns a man. ~ Ghanaian Proverb
The best answer to anger is silence. ~ German Proverb
When the fool knows when to be silent, he would be sitting among the wise. ~ Czech Proverb
A silent man is the best one to listen to. ~ Japanese Proverb
Silent worms dig holes in the walls. ~ Japanese Proverb
Silence is also speech. ~ West African Proverb
Great things can best be said in silence. ~ Polish Proverb
A silent man’s words are not brought into court. ~ Danish Proverb
The silent man is the best to listen to. ~ Japanese Proverb
Speech is often repented, silence never. ~ Danish Proverb
A silent mouth is melodious. ~ Irish Proverb
Unspoken words are the flowers of silence. ~ Japanese Proverb
When coins rattle, philosophers are silent. ~ Serbian Proverb
Silence is the door of consent. ~ Berber Proverb
Beauty is silent eloquence. ~ French Proverb
When money speaks, the truth keeps silent. ~ Russian Proverb
Silence is medication for sorrow. ~ Arab Proverb
It is a sorry house in which the rooster is silent and the hen crows. ~ French Proverb
An idiot is eloquent when he stays silent. ~ Japanese Proverb
Silence is the soul of all things. ~ French Proverb
The silence of the people is a warning for the king. ~ French Proverb
If a word be worth one shekel, silence is worth two. ~ Hebrew Proverb
When people only talk about things they understand then a great silence will descend upon the world. ~ Chinese Proverb
You cannot write down a meaningful silence. ~ Italian Proverb
Repentance for silence is better than repentance for speaking. ~ Spanish Proverb
Often a silent face has voice and words. ~ Latin Proverb
The silent dog is the first to bite. ~ Traditional Proverb
Silence is an attribute of the dead; he who is alive speaks. ~ Beninese Proverb
Fools are like other folks as long as they are silent. ~ Danish Proverb
He who talks to a silent listener will soon stand naked. ~ Japanese Proverb
Were fools silent, they would pass for wise. ~ Dutch Proverb
Silence is the voice of complicity. ~ Traditional Proverb
Quotations about Silence
Nothing is more useful than silence. ~ Menander
Silence is learned by the many misfortunes of life. ~ Seneca
If we cannot teach beasts to speak, we can at least learn silence from them. ~ Ivan Panin
Silence is a text easy to misread. ~ A.A. Attanasio
Spiteful words can hurt your feelings but silence breaks your heart. ~ Source Unknown
The silente man still suffers wrong. ~ Source Unknown
Speech is often barren; but silence also does not necessarily brood over a full nest. ~ George Eliot
Silence is the eternal duty of man. ~ Thomas Carlyle
Her hearing was keener than his, and she heard silences he was unaware of. ~ D.M. Thomas
You are a slave to what you do say, a master of what you don’t say. ~ Source Unknown
Silence is like a river of grace inviting us to leap unafraid into its beckoning depths. It is dark and mysterious in the waters of grace. ~ Macrina Wiederkehr
Silence is not silence, but a limit of hearing. ~ Jane Hirshfield
Great souls endure in silence. ~ Johann Friedrich Von Schiller
Silence has many beauties. ~ Sophocles
Let us be silent, that we may hear the whispers of the gods. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
Silence is one great art of conversation. ~ William Hazlitt
We need to find God, and he cannot be found in noise and restlessness. God is the friend of silence. See how nature – trees, flowers, grass – grows in silence; see the stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence…. We need silence to be able to touch souls. ~ Mother Teresa
Silence is the genius of fools and one of the virtues of the wise. ~ Bernard de Bonnard
So it always is: when you escape to a desert the silence shouts in your ear. ~ Graham Greene
There’s a thing that keeps surprising you about stormy old friends after they die; their silence. ~ Ben
Silence never makes any blunders. ~ Henry Wheeler Shaw
You can hear the footsteps of God when silence reigns in the mind. ~ Sri Sathya Sai Baba
He knows not how to speak who cannot be silent. ~ Johann Caspar Lavater
We often repent of what we have said, but never, never, of that which we have not. ~ Thomas Jefferson
Silence never yet betrayed any one! ~ Antoine de Rivarol
To women silence gives their proper grace. ~ Sophocles
To a poet, silence is an acceptable response, even a flattering one. ~ Sidonie Gabrielle Colette
I think silence is the condition you accept as the judgment on your crimes. ~ Don Delillo
Silence is the safest course for any man to adopt who distrusts himself. ~ François de la Rochefoucauld
Silence is a great peacemaker. ~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
When Silence speaks for Love, she has much to say. ~ Richard Garnett
I don’t know whether to keep silent and let people think I am ignorant — or open my mouth and release all doubts. ~ Source Unknown
A sage thing is timely silence, and better than any speech. ~ Plutarch
I look on that man as happy, who, when there is a question of success, looks into his work for a reply. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
Good as is discourse, silence is better and shames it. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
Learn to get in touch with the silence within yourself and know that everything in this life has a purpose. ~ Elisabeth Kubler-Ross
Silence is a virtue in those who are deficient in understanding. ~ Dominique Bouhours
The cruelest lies are often told in silence. ~ Robert Louis Stevenson
Now all my teachers are dead except silence. ~ W.S. Merwin
A friend is someone you can be alone with and have nothing to do and not be able to think of anything to say and be comfortable in the silence. ~ Sheryl Condie
To be silent oft is to learn. ~ Edward Counsel
These be three silent things: The Falling snow… the hour before the dawn… the mouth of one just dead. ~ Adelaide Crapsey
Silence, when nothing need be said, is the eloquence of discretion. ~ Christian Nestell Bovee
When you have nothing to say, say nothing. ~ Charles Caleb Colton
May God be gracious to each lonely one who walks in silence towards the setting sun. ~ Source Unknown
I have learned silence from the talkative; tolerance from the intolerant; and kindness from the unkind. ~ Kahlil Gibran
Silence more musical than any song. ~ Christina Georgina Rossetti
Silence is the virtue of fools. ~ Francis Bacon
Silence in woman is like speech in man. ~ Ben Jonson
If silence is good for the wise, how much better is it for the foolish! ~ Ivan Panin
No person is your friend who demands your silence, or denies your right to grow. ~ Alice Walker
Everything has its wonders, even darkness and silence, and I learn, whatever state I may be in, therein to be content. ~ Helen Keller
Everybody should have his personal sounds to listen for—sounds that will make him exhilarated and alive, or quiet and calm… As a matter of fact, one of the greatest sounds of them all—and to me it is a sound—is utter, complete silence. ~ André Kostelanetz
I decided it is better to scream. . . . Silence is the real crime against humanity. ~ Nadezhda Mandelstam
If I could I would always work in silence and obscurity, and let my efforts be known by their results. ~ Emily Bronte
Not every one who has the gift of speech understands the value of silence. ~ Johann Kaspar Lavater
Music and silence combine strongly because music is done with silence, and silence is full of music. ~ Marcel Marceau
True friendship comes when silence between two people is comfortable. ~ David Tyson Gentry
Silence is a sounding thing, to one who listens hungrily. ~ Gwendolyn Bennett
By silence, I hear other men’s imperfections and conceal my own. ~ Zeno
The deepest feeling always shows itself in silence; not in silence, but restraint. ~ Source Unknown
From the enlightenment of music comes the wisdom of… silence. ~ Source Unknown
Silence on the radio… I don’t know how that works. ~ Garrison Keillor
Silence is the speech of love, the music of the spheres above. ~ Richard Henry Stoddard
Silence is the mother of truth. ~ Benjamin Disraeli
Silence, the great Empire of Silence: higher than all stars; deeper than the Kingdom of Death! It alone is great; all else is small. ~ Thomas Carlyle
I have found out in the course of a long public life that the things I did not say never hurt me. ~ Calvin Coolidge
It is rude to silence a fool, and cruelty to let him go on. ~ Source Unknown
To stand in silence when they should be protesting makes cowards out of men. ~ Abraham Lincoln
With well doing you may put to silence foolish men. ~ The Holy Bible
Speech is of time, silence is of eternity. ~ Thomas Carlyle
Silence is the understanding of fools and one of the virtues of the wise. ~ Bernard de Bonnard
Real Silence begins when a reasonable being withdraws from the noise in order to find peace and order in his inner sanctuary. ~ Peter Minard
Silence is deep as eternity; speech is shallow as time. ~ Thomas Carlyle
When the eagles are silent the parrots begin to jabber. ~ Winston Churchill
He who sleeps in continual noise is wakened by silence. ~ William Dean Howells
Under all speech that is good for anything, there lies a silence that is better. Silence is deep as Eternity; speech is shallow as Time. ~ Thomas Carlyle
In the attitude of silence the soul finds the path in an clearer light, and what is elusive and deceptive resolves itself into crystal clearness. Our life is a long and arduous quest after Truth. ~ Mahatma Gandhi
Silences make the real conversations between friends. Not the saying but the never needing to say is what counts. ~ Margaret Lee Runbeck
The Arctic expresses the sum of all wisdom: Silence. ~ Walter Bauer
Every deed and every relationship is surrounded by an atmosphere of silence. Friendship needs no words — it is solitude delivered from the anguish of loneliness. ~ Dag Hammarskjold
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 stopped us slipping into the lousy script. ~ Glen Duncan
It is silence that most needs an answering — when I can no longer speak, hear me. ~ Jeanette Winterson
If he who does not know kept silent, discord would cease. ~ Socrates
True silence is the rest of the mind; it is to the spirit what sleep is to the body, nourishment and refreshment. ~ William Penn
Three things are ever silent–Thought, Destiny, and the Grave. ~ Edward George Earle Lytton Bulwer-Lytton
There are times when God asks nothing of his children except silence, patience and tears. ~ C. S. Robinson
Let us sculpt in hopeless silence all our dreams of speaking. ~ Fernando Pessoa
Silence has never brought us anything of worth. ~ Audre Lorde
Silence at the proper season is wisdom, and better than any speech. ~ Plutarch
Silence is the only language god speaks. ~ Charles Simic
If I cannot understand my friend’s silence, I will never get to understand his words. ~ John Enoch Powell
Persuasive speech, and more persuasive sighs, Silence that spoke and eloquence of eyes. ~ Homer
It has been said with some meaning that if men would but rest in silence, they might always hear the music of the spheres. ~ Sir Arthur Helps
It is only reason that teaches silence. The heart teaches us to speak. ~ Jean Paul Friedrich Richter
Silence is like nightfall; objects are lost in it insensibly. ~ Madame Anne Sophie Swetchine
The silence depressed me. It wasn’t the silence of silence. It was my own silence. ~ Sylvia Plath