Category: SILENCE

  • “The older you grow, the more quiet you become. Life humbles you gradually as you age.”

    —Marc Chernoff

  • Abba Joseph says to Abba Nisteros: “What am I to do with my tongue for I cannot control it?” The elder said to him: “So when you speak, do you experience repose?”  “No,” he said to him, and the elder said: “If you do not experience repose, why do you speak? Better to keep quiet; and if a conversation is taking place, hear a great deal rather than speak.”

    Give Me a Word: The Alphabetical Sayings of the Desert Fathers

  • “At your work, flee conversation; only speak in moderation when necessary.”

    —Elder Ephraim

  • “Very often, people could be so much more interesting—to themselves, to others—if they were just honest.  If they weren’t so afraid of saying things like, ‘How am I going to look if I say this?’”

    —David Heinemeier Hansson

  • If your brother does not wish to live peaceably with you, nevertheless guard yourself against hatred, praying for him sincerely and not abusing him to anybody.

    —St Maximos the Confessor

  • This thought of yours is wicked; for it wants to prevent you from correcting your brother. Therefore, do not prevent yourself from speaking; but rather, speak according to God.

    For, indeed, even sick people that are being healed will speak against their doctors; yet, the latter do not care, knowing that the same people will thank them afterward.

    Letters from the Desert: A Selection of Questions and Responses (St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press Popular Patristics Series)

  • The more we talk about things that people don’t like to talk about, the better it is for everyone.

    “I FAIL ALMOST EVERY DAY”: AN INTERVIEW WITH SAMIN NOSRAT

  • But the moments of silence lead infallibly to profound decisions, wordless decisions, a gift of my inmost “self”. Conversions take place silently and not in spectacular gestures. Returning to God, burying oneself in him, this total gift, these moments of intimacy with God are always mysterious and secret.

    +Cardinal Sarah

  • Learn to be silent more, and you will not sin and judge others. When you will cease complaining and will zealously care for the sick for God’s sake, then you will be freed from your illnesses, not only of the body, but also of the soul. If after your correction the illness does not leave, then it means that for your patience you will be given a crown in the future unending life.

    —St. Joseph of Optina

  • Do not shorten the morning by getting up late, or waste it in unworthy occupations or in talk; look upon it as the quintessence of life, as to a certain extent sacred. Evening is like old age: we are languid, talkative, silly. Each day is a little life: every waking and rising a little birth, every fresh morning a little youth, every going to rest and sleep a little death.

    —Arthur Schopenhauer