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baf56ea We sit silently and watch the world around us. This has taken a lifetime to learn. It seems only the old are able to sit next to one another and not say anything and still feel content. The young, brash and impatient, must always break the silence. It is a waste, for silence is pure. Silence is holy. It draws people together because only those who are comfortable with each other can sit without speaking. This is the great paradox. silence Nicholas Sparks
5192d43 Your silence will not protect you. silence speech Audre Lorde
d105245 "I don't think..." then you shouldn't talk, said the Hatter." silence remaining-silent reticence Lewis Carroll
aa43a6a When I pronounce the word Future, the first syllable already belongs to the past. When I pronounce the word Silence, I destroy it. silence Wisława Szymborska
a0c8216 Blessed is the man who, having nothing to say, abstains from giving us wordy evidence of the fact. silence remaining-silent George Eliot
941a37a I need to be alone. I need to ponder my shame and my despair in seclusion; I need the sunshine and the paving stones of the streets without companions, without conversation, face to face with myself, with only the music of my heart for company. solitude silence Henry Miller
e2d6928 You have a grand gift for silence, Watson. It makes you quite invaluable as a companion. silence Arthur Conan Doyle
edb2164 How much better is silence; the coffee cup, the table. How much better to sit by myself like the solitary sea-bird that opens its wings on the stake. Let me sit here for ever with bare things, this coffee cup, this knife, this fork, things in themselves, myself being myself. solitude silence Virginia Woolf
8985214 The true genius shudders at incompleteness -- imperfection -- and usually prefers silence to saying the something which is not everything that should be said. silence incompleteness shudder imperfection Edgar Allan Poe
4514356 Have you ever heard the wonderful silence just before the dawn? Or the quiet and calm just as a storm ends? Or perhaps you know the silence when you haven't the answer to a question you've been asked, or the hush of a country road at night, or the expectant pause of a room full of people when someone is just about to speak, or, most beautiful of all, the moment after the door closes and you're alone in the whole house? Each one is different, you know, and all very beautiful if you listen carefully. silence quiet Norton Juster
73010e2 Silence is only frightening to people who are compulsively verbalizing. silence loquacity remaining-silent reticence William S. Burroughs
bd50d47 "I was going to die, sooner or later, whether or not I had even spoken myself. My silences had not protected me. Your silences will not protect you.... What are the words you do not yet have? What are the tyrannies you swallow day by day and attempt to make your own, until you will sicken and die of them, still in silence? We have been socialized to respect fear more than our own need for language." I began to ask each time: "What's the worst that could happen to me if I tell this truth?" Unlike women in other countries, our breaking silence is unlikely to have us jailed, "disappeared" or run off the road at night. Our speaking out will irritate some people, get us called bitchy or hypersensitive and disrupt some dinner parties. And then our speaking out will permit other women to speak, until laws are changed and lives are saved and the world is altered forever. silence truth speaking-out revolution Audre Lorde
feccb98 Seeing her sitting there unresponsive makes me realize that silence has a sound. silence Jodi Picoult
634c081 As happens sometimes, a moment settled and hovered and remained for much more than a moment. And sound stopped and movement stopped for much, much more than a moment. silence John Steinbeck
b2f928b On the fifth day, which was a Sunday, it rained very hard. I like it when it rains hard. It sounds like white noise everywhere, which is like silence but not empty. silence rain perspective white-noise Mark Haddon
0a1695b Talk, talk, talk: the utter and heartbreaking stupidity of words. words silence stupidity talking William Faulkner
2b7f457 Quiet is peace. Tranquility. Quiet is turning down the volume knob on life. Silence is pushing the off button. Shutting it down. All of it. - Amir silence tranquility quiet Khaled Hosseini
455588e Be silent and safe -- silence never betrays you true silence poetry friends trust work motivational inspirational praise advice judgement safety John Boyle O'Reilly
f9a05b5 I said nothing for a time, just ran my fingertips along the edge of the human-shaped emptiness that had been left inside me. metaphor silence Haruki Murakami
b633500 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 silence poem fear speaking-of survival survivors Audre Lorde
d9e195c The cruelest lies are often told in silence. silence Robert Louis Stevenson
b0a5d44 If you can sit in silence with a person for half an hour and yet be entirely comfortable, you and that person can be friends. If you cannot, friends you'll never be and you need not waste time in trying. silence L.M. Montgomery
3c38cd5 It is always assumed by the empty-headed, who chatter about themselves for want of something better, that people who do not discuss their affairs openly must have something to hide. silence remaining-silent reticence psychology Honoré de Balzac
aec242c The splendid thin silence profound life-quotes positive-thinking life-lessons inspirational failures falling-apart life-path new-beginnings deep endings deep-thoughts falling Sanober Khan
91b93f5 The splendid thing about falling apart silently... is that you can start over as many times as you like. silence profound life-quotes positive-thinking life-lessons inspirational failures falling-apart life-path new-beginnings endings deep-thoughts falling Sanober Khan
e8bade3 I have always loved the desert. One sits down on a desert sand dune, sees nothing, hears nothing. Yet through the silence something throbs, and gleams... silence Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
16d5fc3 For those of us who live at the shoreline standing upon the constant edges of decision crucial and alone for those of us who cannot indulge the passing dreams of choice who love in doorways coming and going in the hours between dawns looking inward and outward at once before and after seeking a now that can breed futures like bread in our children's mouths so their dreams will not reflect the death of ours: For those of us who were imprinted with fear like a faint line in the center of our foreheads learning to be afraid with our mother's milk for by this weapon this illusion of some safety to be found the heavy-footed hoped to silence us For all of us this instant and this triumph We were never meant to survive. And when the sun rises we are afraid it might not remain when the sun sets we are afraid it might not rise in the morning when our stomachs are full we are afraid of indigestion when our stomachs are empty we are afraid we may never eat again when we are loved we are afraid love will vanish when we are alone we are afraid love will never return 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. silence poetry life speaking-out Audre Lorde
0354f65 you'd think that silence would be peaceful. but really, it's painful. silence David Levithan
866e7cf My silences had not protected me. Your silence will not protect you. But for every real word spoken, for every attempt I had ever made to speak those truths for which I am still seeking, I had made contact with other women while we examined the words to fit a world in which we all believed, bridging our differences. illness words silence feminism women truth speaking-out differences Audre Lorde
8c48ab4 "He shook his head, just looking at me. - "What?" I asked. - "Nothing" he said. - "Why are you looking at me like that?" Augustus half smiled. "Because you`re beautiful. I enjoy looking at beautiful people, and I decided a while ago not to deny myself the simpler pleasures of existence." A brief awkward silence ensued. Augustus plowed through: "I mean, particularly given that, as you so deliciously pointed out, all of this will end in oblivion and everything." I kind of scoffed or sighed or exhaled in a way that was vaguely coughy and then said, "I`m not beau-" - "You are like a millennial Natalie Portman. Like V for Vendetta Natalie Portman." - "Never seen it." lover lovers silence life love real-life awkward flirt gorgeous looking-at-me natalie-portman turn-me-on vendetta john-green boy the-fault-in-our-stars real girl smile smiling beautiful hazel John Green The Fault in Our Stars
e982761 Skies are crying teardrops silence inspirational skyscraper lyrics Demi Lovato
8e7402d When a question has no correct answer, there is only one honest response. The gray area between yes and no. Silence. silence dan-brown Dan Brown
1f7aad5 "It may well be that we will have to repent in this generation. Not merely for the vitriolic words and the violent actions of the bad people, but for the appalling silence and indifference of the good people who sit around and say, "Wait on time." violence silence social-justice change indifference good-people vitriol social-movements repentance generations Martin Luther King Jr.
2120e52 It does not do to rely too much on silent majorities, Evey, for silence is a fragile thing, one loud noise, and its gone. But the people are so cowed and disorganised. A few might take the opportunity to protest, but it'll just be a voice crying in the wilderness. Noise is relative to the silence preceding it. The more absolute the hush, the more shocking the thunderclap. Our masters have not heard the people's voice for generations, Evey and it is much, much louder than they care to remember. silence shock revolution Alan Moore & David Lloyd
cbe466a "Secret to what?" "Secret to shutting you up," he said. "I just have to beat you till you're half-dead, then give you chicken soup and"--he raised his hands--"blessed silence." silence magic-burns ilona-andrews curran kate-daniels kate Ilona Andrews
a03f7a6 This is thy hour O Soul, thy free flight into the wordless, Away from books, away from art, the day erased, the lesson done, Thee fully forth emerging, silent, gazing, pondering the themes thou lovest best. Night, sleep, and the stars. silence soul Walt Whitman
4778864 God is whispering in your heart, in the whole existence, just tune your ears. silence spirituality motivational god spiritual inspirational mediation meditations spiritual-growth Amit Ray
aa0cdd6 All the being and the doing, expansive, glittering, vocal, evaporated; and one shrunk, with a sense of solemnity, to being oneself, a wedge-shaped core of darkness, something invisible to others. solitude silence seclusion Virginia Woolf
3c05621 "Never be silent with persons you love and distrust," Mr. Carpenter had said once. "Silence betrays." silence love distrust L.M. Montgomery
0a59de3 Silence is of different kinds, and breathes different meanings. silence Charlotte Brontë
bb97b04 And where there is no Echo there is no description of space or love. There is only silence. silence love space Mark Z. Danielewski
ee00d99 Stars open among the lilies. Are you not blinded by such expressionless sirens? This is the silence of astounded souls. silence Sylvia Plath
d7f8fef You can listen to silence, Reuven. 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. It talks to me sometimes. I feel myself alive in it. It talks. And I can hear it. ... You have to want to listen to it, and then you can hear it. It has a strange, beautiful texture. It doesn't always talk. Sometimes - sometimes it cries, and you can hear the pain of the world in it. It hurts to listen to it then. But you have to. pain silence Chaim Potok
761725e Slowly we became silent, and silence itself if an enemy to friendship. silence friends friendship philosophy Norman Maclean
4b53216 I'm all these words, all these strangers, this dust of words, with no ground for their settling, no sky for their dispersing, coming together to say, fleeing one another to say, that I am they, all of them, those that merge, those that part, those that never meet, and nothing else, yes, something else, that I'm something quite different, a quite different thing, a wordless thing in an empty place, a hard shut dry cold black place, where nothing stirs, nothing speaks, and that I listen, and that I seek, like a caged beast born of caged beasts born of caged beasts born of caged beasts born in a cage and dead in a cage, born and then dead, born in a cage and then dead in a cage, in a word like a beast, in one of their words, like such a beast, and that I seek, like such a beast, with my little strength, such a beast, with nothing of its species left but fear and fury, no, the fury is past, nothing but fear, nothing of all its due but fear centupled, fear of its shadow, no, blind from birth, of sound then, if you like, we'll have that, one must have something, it's a pity, but there it is, fear of sound, fear of sounds, the sounds of beasts, the sounds of men, sounds in the daytime and sounds at night, that's enough, fear of sounds all sounds, more or less, more or less fear, all sounds, there's only one, continuous, day and night, what is it, it's steps coming and going, it's voices speaking for a moment, it's bodies groping their way, it's the air, it's things, it's the air among the things, that's enough, that I seek, like it, no, not like it, like me, in my own way, what am I saying, after my fashion, that I seek, what do I seek now, what it is, it must be that, it can only be that, what it is, what it can be, what what can be, what I seek, no, what I hear, I hear them, now it comes back to me, they say I seek what it is I hear, I hear them, now it comes back to me, what it can possibly be, and where it can possibly come from, since all is silent here, and the walls thick, and how I manage, without feeling an ear on me, or a head, or a body, or a soul, how I manage, to do what, how I manage, it's not clear, dear dear, you say it's not clear, something is wanting to make it clear, I'll seek, what is wanting, to make everything clear, I'm always seeking something, it's tiring in the end, and it's only the beginning. words silence fear sound insanity Samuel Beckett
71da970 I no longer believe that we can keep silent. We never really do, mind you. In one way or another we articulate what has happened to us through the kind of people we become. silence Azar Nafisi
bd55893 A nervous silence loosens tongues sex silence politics nervous tongues Jacqueline Carey
2bfd8c9 I have heard the languages of apocalypse, and now I shall embrace the silence. silence Neil Gaiman
34b6d11 I discovered that I felt at home and alive in the silence, which compelled me to enter my interior world and around there. Without the distraction of constant conversation, the words on the page began to speak directly to my inner self. They were no long expressing ideas that were simply interesting intellectually, but were talking directly to my own yearning and perplexity. silence Karen Armstrong
d33fe5d Truth for anyone is a very complex thing. For a writer, what you leave out says as much as those things you include. What lies beyond the margin of the text? The photographer frames the shot; writers frame their world. Mrs Winterson objected to what I had put in, but it seemed to me that what I had left out was the story's silent twin. There are so many things that we can't say, because they are too painful. We hope that the things we can say will soothe the rest, or appease it in some way. Stories are compensatory. The world is unfair, unjust, unknowable, out of control. When we tell a story we exercise control, but in such a way as to leave a gap, an opening. It is a version, but never the final one. And perhaps we hope that the silences will be heard by someone else, and the story can continue, can be retold. When we write we offer the silence as much as the story. Words are the part of silence that can be spoken. Mrs Winterson would have preferred it if I had been silent. Do you remember the story of Philomel who is raped and then has her tongue ripped out by the rapist so that she can never tell? I believe in fiction and the power of stories because that way we speak in tongues. We are not silenced. All of us, when in deep trauma, find we hesitate, we stammer; there are long pauses in our speech. The thing is stuck. We get our language back through the language of others. We can turn to the poem. We can open the book. Somebody has been there for us and deep-dived the words. I needed words because unhappy families are conspiracies of silence. The one who breaks the silence is never forgiven. He or she has to learn to forgive him or herself. silence truth narrative storytelling trauma Jeanette Winterson
5c83f57 Maybe I was naive to think that silence was implicit complacence, instead of a festering question. Maybe I was silly to believe that friends owed each other anything. silence Jodi Picoult
bdbb4da Word by word, the language of women so often begins with a whisper. silence women writing-whisper Terry Tempest Williams
946f936 And for a price, I will pretend absolutely nothing. sex silence price Jacqueline Carey
c4a8c5d If anything might hurt her, silence would; and I wanted to hurt her. silence John Fowles
5f0bbc2 Three hundred years of humiliation, abuse and deprivation cannot be expected to find voice in a whisper. racism silence slavery politics corrupt martin-luther-king-jr civil-rights-movement corruption race-relations Martin Luther King Jr.
fd5e0e8 [The modern age] knows nothing about isolation and nothing about silence. In our quietest and loneliest hour the automatic ice-maker in the refrigerator will cluck and drop an ice cube, the automatic dishwasher will sigh through its changes, a plane will drone over, the nearest freeway will vibrate the air. Red and white lights will pass in the sky, lights will shine along highways and glance off windows. There is always a radio that can be turned to some all-night station, or a television set to turn artificial moonlight into the flickering images of the late show. We can put on a turntable whatever consolation we most respond to, Mozart or Copland or the Grateful Dead. loneliness silence shallowness modern-society stillness isolation peace noise technology Wallace Stegner
6ad9627 I think I will do nothing for a long time but listen, And accrue what I hear into myself...and let sound contribute toward me. silence Walt Whitman
0a64081 I wanted to feel the blood running back into my veins, even at the cost of annihilation. I wanted to shake the stone and light out of my system. I wanted the dark fecundity of nature, the deep well of the womb, silence, or else the lapping of the black waters of death. I wanted to be that night which the remorseless eye illuminated, a night diapered with stars and trailing comets. To be of night so frighteningly silent, so utterly incomprehensible and eloquent at the same time. Never more to speak or to listen or to think. silence stars light nature eloquent fecundity incomprehensible womb veins stone blood Henry Miller
a77ab7e ...my father, [was] a mid-level phonecompany manager who treated my mother at best like an incompetent employee. At worst? He never beat her, but his pure, inarticulate fury would fill the house for days, weeks, at a time, making the air humid, hard to breathe, my father stalking around with his lower jaw jutting out, giving him the look of a wounded, vengeful boxer, grinding his teeth so loud you could hear it across the room ... I'm sure he told himself: 'I never hit her'. I'm sure because of this technicality he never saw himself as an abuser. But he turned our family life into an endless road trip with bad directions and a rage-clenched driver, a vacation that never got a chance to be fun. rage silence family heartbreak love abusive-parents mental-abuse abusive broken-home heartbroken love-lost fights divorce childhood-memories malice emotional-abuse anger communication fighting parents parents-and-children mother fury fight father childhood terror parenthood scared sexism Gillian Flynn
63dabd7 The silence was suddenly too charged, his face too beautiful in the light. silence sam Sarah J. Maas
e549e46 I don't know: perhaps it's a dream, all a dream. (That would surprise me.) I'll wake, in the silence, and never sleep again. (It will be I?) Or dream (dream again), dream of a silence, a dream silence, full of murmurs (I don't know, that's all words), never wake (all words, there's nothing else). You must go on, that's all I know. They're going to stop, I know that well: I can feel it. They're going to abandon me. It will be the silence, for a moment (a good few moments). Or it will be mine? The lasting one, that didn't last, that still lasts? It will be I? You must go on. I can't go on. You must go on. I'll go on. You must say words, as long as there are any - until they find me, until they say me. (Strange pain, strange sin!) You must go on. Perhaps it's done already. Perhaps they have said me already. Perhaps they have carried me to the threshold of my story, before the door that opens on my story. (That would surprise me, if it opens.) It will be I? It will be the silence, where I am? I don't know, I'll never know: in the silence you don't know. You must go on. I can't go on. I'll go on. suicide words story silence Samuel Beckett
c742bd0 "I know you have it in you, Guy," Anne said suddenly at the end of a silence, "the capacity to be terribly happy." silence happy human truth terribly strangers-on-a-train patricia-highsmith train strangers Patricia Highsmith
67212bd Nowadays silence is looked on as odd and most of my race has forgotten the beauty of meaning much by saying little. Now tongues work all day by themselves with no help from the mind. silence quiet stereotype loud Toni Morrison
d338b86 It just took some people a little longer than others to realize how few words they needed to get by, how much of life they could negotiate in silence. silence life connection Tom Perrotta
7edcc80 Just because I'm no jaw clacker doesn't mean there should be a ruction put up whenever I have sommat to say. silence mastiff Tamora Pierce
1c481d2 "Why?" he whispered as he leaned over her, supported on one arm. "Why must ye be the one that haunts me dreams? I've seen ye weepin' night after bloody night since the day I sent ye from me palace with yer dress half undone. If I had it to do over again, I'd cut me own right hand off rather than hurt ye so. Will ye never be able to forgive me, Silence love?" "I already have," she replied, cradling his cheek in her hand. "Long, long ago." silence scandalous-desires mickey Elizabeth Hoyt
43324f8 He'd kept this silence because his own secrets were darker, more hidden, and because he believed that his secrets had created hers. silence Kim Edwards
868aebe It is well, when in difficulties, to say never a word, neither black nor white. Speech is silver but silence is golden. silence Muriel Spark
a06ed8b Why must you speak your thoughts? Silence, if fair words stick in your throat, would serve all our ends better. silence thoughts fair-words indiscretion speech J.R.R. Tolkien
435daf3 Silence. How long it lasted, I couldn't tell. It might have been five seconds, it might have been a minute. Time wasn't fixed. It wavered, stretched, shrank. Or was it me that wavered, stretched, and shrank in the silence? I was warped in the folds of time, like a reflection in a fun house mirror. time silence warped shrinking wavering seconds reflections mirrors surreal Haruki Murakami
3e7afdb I lay down across her with my face in her breasts and my hand on her. We lay there without moving. But under us all moved, and moved us, gently, up and down, and from side to side. (Pause. Krapp's lips move. No sound.) Past midnight. Never knew such silence. The earth might be uninhabited. silence life love relatipnship krapp movement play Samuel Beckett
c12d7f6 We are only lightly covered with buttoned cloth; and beneath these pavements are shells, bones and silence. silence death life thought Virginia Woolf
7141d22 "There, there, sweetin'," he murmured into her hair. "He loved me, he truly did," she gasped. "I know he did," Michael said. "And I loved him." "Mm-hmm." She raised her head, glaring angrily. "You don't even believe in love. Why are you agreeing with me?" He laughed. "Because"--he leaned down and licked at the tears on her cheeks, his lips brushing softly against her sensitive skin as he spoke, "ye've bewitched and bespelled me, my sweet Silence, didn't ye know? I'll agree that the sky is pink, that the moon is made o' marzipan and sugared raisins, and that mermaids swim the muddy waters o' the Thames, if ye'll only stop weepin'. Me chest breaks apart and gapes wide open when I see tears in yer pretty eyes. Me lungs, me liver, and me heart cannot stand to be thus exposed." She stopped breathing. She simply inhaled and stopped, looking at him in wonder. His lips were quirked in a mocking smile, but his eyes--his fathomless black eyes--seemed to hold a great pain as if his strong chest really had been split open." silence scandalous-desires mickey Elizabeth Hoyt
a7f6852 "A thousand times today I've started to open my mouth, started to squeak out, "Can you tell me...? But then I'd look into the front seat, at my mother's silent shaking, my father's grim profile, the mournful bags under his eyes, and all the questions I might ask seemed abusive. Assault and battery, a question mark used like a club. My parents are old and fragile. I'd have to heartless to want to hurt them." silence feelings fear suppress discomfort crying parents protectiveness Margaret Peterson Haddix
b19b6b1 Silence fell between them, as tangible as the dark tree shadows that fell across their laps and that now seemed to rest upon them as heavily as though they possessed a measurable weight of their own. silence quiet Madeleine L'Engle
ce4ff7e When silence is a choice, it is an unnerving presence. When silence is imposed, it is censorship. silence voice censorship Terry Tempest Williams
0d10e27 She knew very well that people fell out, even stormily, and then made up. But she did not know how to start - she simply did not have the trick of it, the row that cleared the air, and could never quite believe that hard words could be unsaid or forgotten. silence not-saying Ian McEwan
d5cf7c5 ...there are times when silence is a poem. silence John Fowles
feae7ba Stop your whining. If you are frightened, be silent. Whining is for prey. It attracts predators. And you are not prey. silence predator prey scare whine silent wolf cry worry fright Robin Hobb
67f75e3 "She swallowed, watching as the servants and Harry and Bert trooped out of the room. Lad, apparently not the brightest dog in the world, sat down next to Mickey O'Connor and leaned against his leg. Mr. O'Connor looked at the dog, looked at the damp spot growing on his breeches where the dog was leaning, and sighed. "I find me life is not as quiet as it used to be afore ye came to me palace, Mrs. Hollingbrook." Silence lifted her chin. "You're a pirate, Mr. O'Connor. I cannot believe your life was ever very quiet." He gave her an ironic look. "Aye, amazin', isn't it? Yet since yer arrival me servants no longer obey me and I return home to find me kitchen flooded." He crossed to a cupboard and took down a china teapot, a tin of tea, and a teacup. "And me dog smells like a whorehouse." Silence glanced guiltily at Lad. "The only soap we could find was rose scented." silence lad-the-dog scandalous-desires mickey Elizabeth Hoyt
133235d "Will ye come with me?" he whispered. And she answered without hesitation. "Yes, please." silence scandalous-desires mickey Elizabeth Hoyt
b379506 "Quiet is here and all in me. ("Dress of White Silk")" silence Richard Matheson
4589a33 "To write," Marguerite Duras remarked, "is also not to speak. It is to keep silent. It is to howl noiselessly." silence silent voice Terry Tempest Williams
50127d0 "From the dim regions beyond the mountains at the upper end of our encircled domain, there crept out a narrow and deep river, brighter than all save the eyes of Eleonora; and, winding stealthily about in mazy courses, it passed away, at length, through a shadowy gorge, among hills still dimmer than those whence it had issued. We called it the "River of Silence"; for there seemed to be a hushing influence in its flow. No murmur arose from its bed, and so gently it wandered along, that the pearly pebbles upon which we loved to gaze, far down within its bosom, stirred not at all, but lay in a motionless content, each in its own old station, shining on gloriously forever." silence love eleonora short-story river Edgar Allan Poe
6f7bc5b "He watched her retreat, his eyes lazy, and his body unmoving. A trickle of blood seeped slowly from the corner of his mouth. He let her get nearly out of the room before he spoke, "I may not have the right, Silence, me love," he drawled so soft she nearly didn't catch the words. "But I would've listened to ye. I would've believed ye." silence scandalous-desires mickey Elizabeth Hoyt
2006dee Our toil must be in silence, and our efforts all in secret; for this enlightened age, when men believe not even what they see, the doubting of wise men would be his greatest strength. mankind silence men secret strength doubting efforts toil wise-men doubts strive effort Bram Stoker
2724cd8 "He grunted and stirred, withdrawing from her. She only had a moment to be disappointed and then he flipped her to her back and rose over her, powerful and male. He casually parted her legs with his knees and thrust into her again, hot and hard. She gasped at the swift invasion, the lovely feeling, and then his face was next to hers, his big palms cradling her cheeks. "What I want," he drawled, "is ye. Nothin' else." silence oh-gawd-hawt scandalous-desires mickey Elizabeth Hoyt
cebab22 There is much pain that is quite noiseless; and vibrations that make human agonies are often a mere whisper in the roar of hurrying existence. There are glances of hatred that stab and raise no cry of murder; robberies that leave man or woman forever beggared of peace and joy, yet kept secret by the sufferer--committed to no sound except that of low moans in the night, seen in no writing except that made on the face by the slow months of suppressed anguish and early morning tears. Many an inherited sorrow that has marred a life has been breathed into no human ear. silence suffering sorrow sadness George Eliot
e051610 I possess the faculty of enjoying the company of those I - of my friends as well in silence as in conversation. silence friendship conversation enjoyment faculty Anne Brontë
0ca5833 It would be erroneous to say Sohrab was quiet. Quiet is peace. Tranquility. Quiet is turning down the volume knob on life. Silence is pushing the off button. Shutting it down. All of it. Sohrab's silence wasn't the self imposed silence of those with convictions, of protesters who seek to speak their cause by not speaking at all. It was the silence of one who has taken cover in a dark place, curled up all the edges and tucked them under. silence mutism quiet Khaled Hosseini
3514734 ...having nothing better to do, meandered off to a coffee shop and sat facing each other for a couple of hours, neither of them talking much but each coming to the general conclusion that the other was a person rather like himself... silence Ryū Murakami
9b69e8e He looked at the houses he had been passing these weeks and though he had never studied them carefully they had become familiar through the process of seeing them so often, and he was now impressed with the change in their appearance as he looked at them through the gray of the air and whiteness of the snow, each house, shrub, tree, bush and mailbox trimmed with snow and blending into the air as if they were just a picture projected upon the still, pearly grayness, just an impression created by the silent snow, a picture on the edge and verge of disappearing and leaving only the air and snow through which he now lightly walked. It did not seem possible, but the air was even softer and quieter. He continued walking alongside his prints feeling he could walk forever, that as long as the silent snow continued falling he could continue walking, and as he did he would leave behind all worries and cares, all horrors of the past and future. There would be nothing to bother him or torture his mind and fill his body with tremors of fear, the dark night of the soul over. There would only be himself and the soft, silent snow; and each flake, in its own life, its own separate and distinct entity, would bring with it its own joy, and he would easily partake of that joy as he continued walking, the gentle, silent snow falling ever so quietly, ever so joyously ... yes, and ever so love-ing-ly ... loveing-ly.... solitude silence song snow Hubert Selby Jr.
8f292f8 the unexpected action of deep listening can create a space of transformation capable of shattering complacency and despair. silence listening transformation Terry Tempest Williams
97f44f6 I think maybe, when I was very young, I witnessed a chaste cheek kiss between the two when it was impossible to avoid. Christmas, birthdays. Dry lips. On their best married days, their communications were entirely transactional: 'We're out of milk again.' (I'll get some today.) 'I need this ironed properly.' (I'll do that today.) 'How hard is it to buy milk?' (Silence.) 'You forgot to call the plumber.' (Sigh.) 'Goddammit, put on your coat, right now, and go out and get some goddamn milk. Now.' These messages and orders brought to you by my father, a mid-level phonecompany manager who treated my mother at best like an incompetent employee. silence depression relationship family heartbreak love abusive-relationship bad-parenting abusive broken-home love-lost fights divorce childhood-memories abusive-relationships communication fighting parents parents-and-children mother fight father childhood parenthood sexism Gillian Flynn
0e50e5c It was as easy as breathing to go and have tea near the place where Jane Austen had so wittily scribbled and so painfully died. One of the things that causes some critics to marvel at Miss Austen is the laconic way in which, as a daughter of the epoch that saw the Napoleonic Wars, she contrives like a Greek dramatist to keep it off the stage while she concentrates on the human factor. I think this comes close to affectation on the part of some of her admirers. Captain Frederick Wentworth in , for example, is partly of interest to the female sex because of the 'prize' loot he has extracted from his encounters with Bonaparte's navy. Still, as one born after Hiroshima I can testify that a small Hampshire township, however large the number of names of the fallen on its village-green war memorial, is more than a world away from any unpleasantness on the European mainland or the high or narrow seas that lie between. (I used to love the detail that Hampshire's 'New Forest' is so called because it was only planted for the hunt in the late eleventh century.) I remember watching with my father and brother through the fence of Stanstead House, the Sussex mansion of the Earl of Bessborough, one evening in the early 1960s, and seeing an immense golden meadow carpeted entirely by grazing rabbits. I'll never keep that quiet, or be that still, again. This was around the time of countrywide protest against the introduction of a horrible laboratory-confected disease, named 'myxomatosis,' into the warrens of old England to keep down the number of nibbling rodents. Richard Adams's lapine masterpiece is the remarkable work that it is, not merely because it evokes the world of hedgerows and chalk-downs and streams and spinneys better than anything since , but because it is only really possible to imagine gassing and massacre and organized cruelty on this ancient and green and gently rounded landscape if it is organized and carried out against herbivores. jane-austen literature silence women 1960s earl-of-bessborough gassing hampshire hiroshima mansions myxomatosis napoleonic-wars new-forest persuasion-novel richard-adams sussex theatre-of-ancient-greece townships war-memorials watership-down wind-in-the-willows napoleon countryside meadow massacre rabbits cruelty world-war-ii quiet england europe literary-criticism Christopher Hitchens
1a895ee An observer can't tell if a person is silent and still because inner life has stalled or because inner life is transfixingly busy. silence observer Susanna Kaysen
88360fb I was trying to unravel the complicated trigonometry of the radical thought that silence could make up the greatest lie ever told. silence secrets Pat Conroy
9426585 I, too, stood on the sacred image. For a moment this foot was on his face. It was on the face of the man who has been ever in my thoughts, on the face that was before me on the mountains, in my wanderings, in prison, on the best and most beautiful face that any man can ever know, on the face of him whom I have always longed to love. Even now that face is looking at me with eyes of pity from the plaque rubbed flat by many feet. << Trample ! >> said those compassionate eyes. << Trample ! Your foot suffers in pain ; it must suffer like all the feet that have stepped on this plaque. But that pain alone is enough. I understand your pain and your suffering. It is for that reason that I am here. >> << Lord, I resented your silence. >> << I was not silent. I suffered beside you. >> silence shusaku-endo Shūsaku Endō
515fb80 It lasted just a moment, whatever that is. One held breath? An ant's afternoon? It was brief, I can promise that much, for although it's been many years now since my children ruled my life, a mother recalls the measure of the silences. silence Barbara Kingsolver
213f1de Silence made space for other people's words, which was important for those who needed to be listened to. words silence love listened rachel-simon the-story-of-beautiful-girl word listening Rachel Simon
3fb19df Sometimes it's just silent...No sound at all. 'Does that scare you?' Chad nods. 'Why?' asks his father. 'It's like something's waiting. silence Mark Z. Danielewski
ed9908b Dear God. She ached, wanting something that she knew was a sin. Wanting a man who was sin itself. silence scandalous-desires Elizabeth Hoyt
2b0f58b "What," came a deep male voice, "is this?" Silence froze, her hand still outstretched, clutching a damp, dirty cloth. Oh, dear Lord. Slowly she raised her eyes and found herself face-to-thighs with Mickey O'Connor's extremely tight breeches." silence scandalous-desires mickey Elizabeth Hoyt
407c3b5 ...she thought with pity of all the men and women who were not light-hearted when they loved, who were cold, who were reluctant, who were shy, who imagined that passion and tenderness were two things separate from one another, and not the one, gloriously intermingled, so that to be fierce was also to be gentle, so that silence was a speaking without words. silence love Daphne du Maurier
6c6d7ad My own eyes try to sleep, but they don't. They stay wide awake as time snarls forward and silence drops down, like measured thought. sleep time silence thought Markus Zusak
8060a32 "She opened her mouth wide in a silent scream and his release caught him, hard and fast as he kissed her openmouthed. He tore his mouth from hers and shouted his triumph. She was his, now and forevermore, until the end of time, until the seas ran dry and man no longer roamed the earth, amen. His and only his. She slumped against him, the scent of their passion musky in the night air. "Sleep," he murmured to her, and held her against himself, his cock still buried deep. She was caught and he had no intention of ever letting her go." silence oh-damn-hawt scandalous-desires mickey Elizabeth Hoyt
2ebbee2 I saw that she didn't want to answer that question and so I asked again: when mouths close it's because there's something important to be said. silence suffering truth the-witch-of-portobello maxim Paulo Coelho
1c92a15 In the meantime the strike is over, with a remarkably low loss of life. All is quiet, they report, all is quiet. In the deserted harbour there is yet water that laps against the quays. In the dark and silent forest there is a leaf that falls. Behind the polished panelling the white ant eats away the wood. Nothing is ever quiet, except for fools. silence strike Alan Paton
3c94753 ...for all its apparent speed, the ship was almost perfectly silent, and he experienced an enervating, eerie feeling, as though the ancient warship, mothballed all those centuries, had somehow not yet fully woken up, and events within its sleek hull still moved to another, slower tempo, made half of dreams. silence dreams jernau-morat-gurgeh made-half-of-dreams mothballed warship waking Iain M. Banks
f7fd070 Silence is not our heritage but our destiny; we live where we want to live. silence Annie Dillard
920a98a Quartering the topmost branches of one of the tall trees, an invisible bird was striving to make the day seem shorter, exploring with a long-drawn note the solitude that pressed it on every side, but it received at once so unanimous an answer, so powerful a repercussion of silence and of immobility, that one felt it had arrested for all eternity the moment which it had been trying to make pass more quickly. solitude silence birdsong passage-of-time Marcel Proust
1e4d33d More silence; children's silence, so desperately desired by adults yet eerie when it finally occurs. silence eerie Zadie Smith
813321d "Humph." She peered down suspiciously as he parted the leaves to reveal the choke. "That doesn't look very tasty." "That's because it isn't," he said. "Pay heed: the artichoke is a shy vegetable. She covers herself in spine-tipped leaves that must be carefully peeled away, and underneath shields her treasure with a barricade o' soft needles. They must be tenderly, but firmly, scraped aside. Ye must be bold, for if yer not, she'll never reveal her soft heart." He finished cutting away the thistles and placed the small, tender heart on the center of her plate. She wrinkled her nose. "That's it? But it's so small." "Ah, and d'ye judge a thing solely upon size alone?" She made a choking sound." silence scandalous-desires Elizabeth Hoyt
1dba065 Lies were something you told other people to make things easier, somehow - hopefully, for them, but often more selfishly for yourself. silence michelle-sagara-west Michelle Sagara West
9fb0c53 I worked it through with pride,I almost spoke without words, and i'm masterly at speaking without words.All my life I have spoken without words, and I have passed through whole tragedies on my own account without words words silence life tragedies speaking master silent talking Fyodor Dostoyevsky
33db63b A voice is a human gift; it should be cherished and used, to utter fully human speech as possible. Powerlessness and silence go together. silence voice Margaret Atwood
f07caf4 I did pray. I kept on Praying. But prayer did nothing to alleviate their suffering. silence prayer Shūsaku Endō
a505aee When you are silent you are again beautiful. silence Virginia Woolf
c76a35c "Silence cleared her throat, fearful her voice would come out a croak. "Is she asleep?" He blinked as if he, too, were waking from a dream, and glanced down at Mary Darling. "Aye, I'm a-thinkin' she is--she's stopped fussin' at me." Silence felt a huge smile of relief spread over her face. "She was fussing? Oh, how wonderful!" He shot her a look, one eyebrow arching. "Ye've taught the child to bully me, too, now?" "Oh, no," she said hastily, embarrassed. Did he really think she bullied him? What a silly notion!" silence scandalous-desires mickey Elizabeth Hoyt
1517d13 Silence fell like a hammer made of feathers. It left holes in the shape of the sound of the sea. silence hammer holes sea nation Terry Pratchett
5538a73 Many voices ask for our attention. There is a voice that says, 'Prove that you are a good person.' Another voice says, 'You'd better be ashamed of yourself.' There also is a voice that says, 'Nobody really cares about you,' and one that says, 'Be sure to become successful, popular, and powerful.' But underneath all these often very noisy voices is a still, small voice that says, 'You are my Beloved, my favor rests on you.' That's the voice we need most of all to hear. To hear that voice, however, requires special effort; it requires solitude, silence, and a strong determination to listen. That's what prayer is. It is listening to the voice that calls us 'my Beloved'. solitude silence prayer god Henri J.M. Nouwen
ffa400f "Silence rose and crossed to the connecting door and knocked. The door was opened almost at once. Michael leaned a shoulder against the doorjamb, a wicked smile playing about his sensuous lips. He was so very big this close--every time it surprised her and made her breathless. "Well, now, and when did ye decide to start knockin' at me door?" Silence fought to keep her face from flaming as she remembered the last time she'd peeked through Michael's door. She swallowed. "We're bored." "Is that so?" Michael glanced down. Silence followed his gaze and saw that Mary had crawled over to investigate. The baby grabbed a handful of her skirt and stood up. She kept one hand on Silence's skirt and popped two fingers from the other into her mouth as she stared solemnly at Michael. "She looks a rare treat," Michael said softly, watching the toddler. Silence smiled down at Mary. "She does indeed." She glanced up and her heart squeezed at the gentle look on Michael's face. As if she understood she was the subject of conversation, Mary lifted her arms--to Michael. "Up!" Michael arched an eyebrow. "Mouthy little thing, ain't she?" But he bent and lifted the toddler." silence scandalous-desires mickey Elizabeth Hoyt
4024dad "Will ye be wantin' this now, madam?" "Yes, please," she whispered. She wanted to engrave the sight of him thus, about to make love to her, in her mind." silence oh-gawd-hawt scandalous-desires mickey Elizabeth Hoyt
5acf8d5 "The butterfly startled at Mary's gesture and floated up, drifting on the breeze, its wings sparkling blue and bright in the late afternoon sunshine. Silence watched it, enthralled, and then her eyes met Michael's. A corner of his mouth cocked up. "Welcome home, m'love." silence scandalous-desires mickey Elizabeth Hoyt
0c8e62d I am always quiet so that I know what to say when I must speak. solitude silence Ishmael Beah
d096515 From the old wood came an ancient melancholy, somehow soothing to her, better than the harsh insentience of the outer world. She liked the inwardness of the remnant of forest, the unspeaking reticence of the old trees. They seemed a very power of silence, and yet a vital presence. They, too, were waiting: obstinately, stoically waiting, and giving off a potency of silence. silence D.H. Lawrence
13e0e62 "At her gesture Michael cursed and caught her hand, falling suddenly atop her. She stared up at him wondering what bedchamber faux pas she'd committed. He groaned at her look. "I'll let ye pet and play all ye want--after. Now I need"--he pushed her chemise to her waist, parted her thighs, and settled between them--"to be inside ye." silence scandalous-desires mickey Elizabeth Hoyt
283d9a9 "As I said, I don't expect you to understand--" "And I don't," he cut in. "Ye ask how I can live a life that I know will end with the hangman's noose. Well, at least I am alive. Ye might as well have climbed inside yer husband's coffin and let yerself be buried with his corpse." Her hand flashed out before she'd thought about it, the smack against his cheek loud in the little courtyard. Silence had her eyes locked with Michael's, her chest rising and falling swiftly, but she was aware that Bert and Harry had looked up. Even Mary and Lad had paused in their play. Without taking his gaze from hers, Michael reached out and grasped her hand. He raised her hand to his lips and softly kissed the center of her palm. He looked at her, her hand still at his lips. "Don't take to yer grave afore yer time, Silence, m'love." silence scandalous-desires mickey Elizabeth Hoyt
e6bcc04 We sit for a few more moments, although there's really nothing left to say. This is new to me, too, an entire conversation that takes place in silence, because the heart has its own language. I will remember what Eric says even though he doesn't say a word. I will tell it to her. silence Jodi Picoult
eb54d42 Rhage exhaled slowly, air easing out of his nose. As he sank into his skin, he reveled in the perfection of peace. The heavenly silence. The great roaring absence. silence peace J.R. Ward
ad0fc0f This forest silence improves anyone. silence reflection quiet Robert M. Pirsig
4a61431 Language and hearing are seated in the cerebral cortex, the folded gray matter that covers the first couple of millimeters of the outer brain like wrapping paper. When one experiences silence, absent even reading, the cerebral cortex typically rests. Meanwhile, deeper and more ancient brain structures seem to be activated--the subcortical zones. People who live busy, noisy lives are rarely granted access to these areas. Silence, it appears, is not the opposite of sound. It is another world altogether, literally offering a deeper level of thought, a journey to the bedrock of the self. experiences silence reading world activated bedrock busy cerebral-cortex deeper gray-matter structures subcortical hearing sound brain noisy language ancient self thought journey Michael Finkel
801344f History, is a conscious, self-meditating process -- Spirit emptied out into Time; but this externalization, this kenosis, is equally an externalization of itself; the negative is the negative of itself. This Becoming presents a slow-moving succession of Spirits, a gallery of images, each of which, endowed with all the riches of Spirit, moves thus slowly just because the Self has to penetrate and digest this entire wealth of its substance. As its fulfilment consists in perfectly knowing what it is, in knowing its substance, this knowing is that withdrawal into itself in which it abandons its outer existence and gives its existential shape over to recollection. Thus absorbed in itself, it is sunk in the night of its self-consciousness; but in that night its vanished outer existence is perserved, and this transformed existence -- the former one, but now reborn of the Spirit's knowledge -- is the new existence, a new world and a new shape of Spirit. In the immediacy of this new existence the Spirit has to start afresh to bring itself to maturity as if, for it, all that preceded were lost and it had learned nothing from the experience of the earlier Spirits. But recollection, the inwardizing, of that experience, has perserved it and is the inner-being, and in fact the higher form of the substance. So although to bring itself to maturity, it is none the less on a higher level that it starts. The realm of Spirits which is formed in this way in the outer world constitutes a succession in Time in which one Spirit relieved another of its charge and each took over the empire of the world from its predecessor. silence meditation Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
3a8eeea ...And suddenly, from behind me, I hear the metaphysically abrupt arrival of the office boy. I feel like I could kill him for barging in on what I wasn't thinking. I turn around and look at him with a silence full of hatred, tense with latent homicide, my mind already hearing the voice he'll use to tell me something or other. He smiles from the other side of the room and says 'Good afternoon' in a loud voice. I hate him like the universe. My eyes are sore from imagining. silence interruption misanthropy introvert Fernando Pessoa
100b721 Quiet had a roof and it had walls around it, and you could sit inside it. She had never thought of silence as a place.One of the friends, Tom Williams told her,'the place is in your heart, Louise. Everything else is just clutter. silence Lloyd Jones
6551c66 It was entirely silent and I tried to breathe its peace. silence Sebastian Faulks
d0c42e9 But I do like churches. The way it feels inside. It feels good when you just sit there, like you're in a forest and everything's really quiet, except there's still this sound you can't hear. silence forest quiet peace Tim O'Brien
7c87451 Everything dictated silence and self-control but I couldn't restrain myself and spoke my mind. silence self-control Philip Roth
eaca0ad The world is a cancer eating itself away... I am think that when the great silence descends upon all and everywhere music will at last triumph. When into the womb of time everything is again withdrawn chaos will be restored and chaos is the score upon which reality is written. time silence reality music tropic-of-cancer henry-miller chaos reality-of-life Henry Miller
2e0be52 There was only silence. It was the silence of matter caught in the act and embarrassed. There were no cells moving, and yet there were cells. I could see the shape of the land, how it lay holding silence. Its poise and its stillness were unendurable, like the ring of the silence you hear in your skull when you're little and notice you're living the ring which resumes later in life when you're sick. silence life matter land Annie Dillard
f09e396 "I must be getting back to my rooms," Silence said and stood. Mick frowned with displeasure. "Why?" "Because of Mary Darling." He shrugged. "One o' the maids is watchin' her." "But if Mary wakes she'll want me." "Why?" he asked again, biting into a sweetmeat. This discussion wasn't to his fancy, but sparring with her was. "Because," she said slowly, looking at him as if he were lack-witted, "she's only a baby and she loves me." "Babies," Mick pronounced, "are a great trouble." She shook her head, not bothering to reply this time, and started marching to the door." silence scandalous-desires mickey Elizabeth Hoyt
a68eb2d Drifting across the vast space, silent except for wind and footsteps, I felt uncluttered and unhurried for the first time in a while, already on desert time. solitude time silence travel explore wanderlust Rebecca Solnit
42813be "And so silence and ...darkness hold happiness and joy?" he said softly. "Assuredly," she said, "provided one listens to the silence and gazes deeply into the darkness. Everything is there. Everything." silence joy listen Mary Balogh
89e3b96 "He sat and looked at her. "How is Mary Darling?" "Fast asleep after playing and having a bath," she said. "The nursery is lovely." "I'm glad you like it." "Rose and Annie are obviously practiced nursemaids, and what is even better, they seem to like Mary, and she them." He grunted. "It would take a hard heart to turn away from my Mary Darling." A smile curved the corners of her lips. "You didn't seem too enamored of her when you first met." "She has a forceful personality, as do I. We just took a bit to get to know one another." silence scandalous-desires mickey Elizabeth Hoyt
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