silence - quotes

Henry James, 1843-1916

was a British (US -born) author

It struck him really that he had never so lived with her as during this period of her silence; the silence was a sacred hush, a finer clearer medium, in which her idiosyncrasies showed.

Blaise Pascal, 1623-1662

was a French mathematician, physicist

The eternal silence of these infinite spaces fills me with dread.

William Penn, 1644-1718

was an English religious leader and colonist

True silence is the rest of the mind; it is to the spirit what sleep is to the body, nourishment and refreshment.

Helen (Adams) Keller, 1880-1968

was an US blind and deaf educator

Everything has its wonders, even darkness and silence, and I learn, whatever state I am in, therein to be content.

Thomas Carlyle, 1795-1881

was a Scottish author, essayist, and historian

Speech is human, silence is divine, yet also brutish and dead: therefore we must learn both arts.

Sydney Smith, 1771-1845

was an English essayist

He had occasional flashes of silence, that made his conversation perfectly delightful.

( referring to Macaulay )