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In human intercourse the tragedy begins, not when there is misunderstanding about words, but when silence is not understood. ~ Henry David Thoreau

I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude. We are for the most part more lonely when we go abroad among men than when we stay in our chambers. ~ Henry David Thoreau

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 is argument carried out by other means. ~ Ernesto Che Guevara

Silence is the perfectest herald of joy. I were but little happy if I could say how much. ~ William Shakespeare

A sage thing is timely silence, and better than any speech. ~ Plutarch

Silence, healing. ~ Heraclitus

I have only one confidant, and that is the silence of night. ~ Soren Kierkegaard

A fair request should be followed by the deed in silence. ~ Dante Alighieri


Choose silence of all virtues, for by it you hear other men’s imperfections, and conceal your own. ~ George Bernard Shaw

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. ~ Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

If you’re asked: What is the silence? Respond: It is the first stone of the Wisdom’s temple. ~ Pythagoras

The world would be happier if men had the same capacity to be silent that they have to speak. ~ Baruch Spinoza