Henry David Thoreau Silence Quotations

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

The silence sings. It is musical. I remember a night when it was audible. I heard the unspeakable.

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.

The most difficult thing to understand during conversation is silence.

There are some things which a man never speaks of, which are much finer kept silent about. To the highest communications we only lend a silent ear.

The man I meet with is not often so instructive as the silence he breaks.

I have been breaking silence these twenty-three years and have hardly made a rent in it.

No way of thinking or doing, however ancient, can be trusted without proof. What everybody echoes or in silence passes by as true to-day may turn out to be falsehood to-morrow.

What can be expressed in words can be expressed in life.

Priests and physicians should never look one another in the face. They have no common ground, nor is there any to mediate betweenthem. When the one comes, the other goes. They could not come together without laughter, or a significant silence, for the one's profession is a satire on the other's, and either's success would be the other's failure.

We communicate like the burrows of foxes, in silence and darkness, under ground. We are undermined by faith and love.

The orator puts off his individuality, and is then most eloquent when most silent. He listens while he speaks, and is a hearer along with his audience.

As the truest society approaches always nearer to solitude, so the most excellent speech finally falls into Silence. Silence is audible to all men, at all times, and in all places. She is when we hear inwardly, sound when we hear outwardly. Creation has not displaced her, but is her visible framework and foil. All sounds are her servants, and purveyors, proclaiming not only that their mistress is, but is a rare mistress, and earnestly to be sought after.