I am accused of disloyalty because I talk about things that many people would keep to themselves, and especially because I may discuss with people who “should not know” a human situation in which I am involved. I am not at all discreet about anything that concerns feeling. My business is the analysis of feeling.

Journal of a Solitude
May Sarton

The Power of the Perfect Pause

The quietest person at a dinner party often leaves with a reputation for brilliance, while others talk themselves into corners.

You see it in boardrooms too – the executive who tilts her head thoughtfully during presentations, somehow radiating wisdom without speaking a word. Even therapists build their practices more on artful silences than clever words.

The wisest among us have learned that saying nothing often says everything.

The Perfect Pause
farnam street

Talking also reveals one’s mentality and knowledge: You don’t know the reality of a taciturn person. Once he speaks, his talk reveals him. His language shows him. Therefore, the Bible says, “If the ignorant does not talk, he will be considered wise.”

—H.H. Pope Shenouda III, Words of Spiritual Benefit Vol. IV

The way of salvation is for every soul to advance forward, focusing only on itself, searching for and finding Christ, while maintaining silence. Without silence, nothing is achieved. What a great virtue silence is! When the grace of God comes into a person’s soul he does not want to speak, eat, or converse.

Gerondissa Makrina (Vassopoulou)
Words of the Heart p.485

What is the point of what we say? Is there any meaning to this series of propositions which constitutes our talk? And do these propositions, taken one by one, have any object? We can talk only if we set aside this question, or if we raise it as infrequently as possible.

—Emil Cioran, The Trouble with Being Born

Love silence more than speaking—for silence gathers and speaking disperses.

—St. Isaiah

“The problem is no longer getting people to express themselves, but providing little gaps of solitude and silence in which they might eventually find something to say… What a relief to have nothing to say, the right to say nothing, because only then is there a chance of framing…the thing that might be worth saying.”

—Gilles Deleuze

“Even if you don’t say anything, if you listen carefully, people will consider you a great conversationalist.”

― Kevin Kelly, Excellent Advice for Living: Wisdom I Wish I’d Known Earlier

But Cecilia had no imagination and never said a word more than was necessary. After a long silence, she concluded: “Till tomorrow, then; good-bye.”

Boredom
Alberto Moravia