By Silence is often perceived as a peaceful refuge, a moment of serenity amidst the chaos of our daily lives. It can provide solace and allow us to reflect on our thoughts. However, there is a side of silence that often goes unnoticed, a side that carries a profound and sometimes painful weight. Silence can hurt.
When words fail to convey the depth of our emotions or when we choose to withhold our thoughts and feelings, silence becomes a potent force that can inflict tremendous pain. It is in these moments of hurt silence that we experience the true power of unspoken words.
In this article, we delve into the realm of “Silence Hurts Quotes,” where the poignant words of poets, authors, and thinkers give voice to the silent anguish many of us endure. These quotes illuminate the hidden wounds, the unexpressed emotions, and the profound impact that silence can have on our lives.
Best Silence Quotes
1. Your silence will not protect you.
Audre Lorde, Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches
2. We sit silently and watch the world around us. This has taken a lifetime to learn. It seems only the old are able to sit next to one another and not say anything and still feel content. The young, brash and impatient, must always break the silence. It is a waste, for silence is pure. Silence is holy. It draws people together because only those who are comfortable with each other can sit without speaking. This is the great paradox.
Nicholas Sparks, The Notebook
3. Never miss a good chance to shut up.
Will Rogers
4. I decided it is better to scream. Silence is the real crime against humanity.
Nadezhda Mandelstam, Hope Against Hope
5. I don’t want to be married just to be married. I can’t think of anything lonelier than spending the rest of my life with someone I can’t talk to, or worse, someone I can’t be silent with.
Mary Ann Shaffer, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
6. I’ve begun to realize that you can listen to silence and learn from it. It has a quality and a dimension all its own.
Chaim Potok, The Chosen
7. Silence is so freaking loud
Sarah Dessen, Just Listen
8. I don’t think…” then you shouldn’t talk, said the Hatter.
Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland
9. We went down into the silent garden. Dawn is the time when nothing breathes, the hour of silence. Everything is transfixed, only the light moves.
Leonora Carrington
10. Blessed is the man who, having nothing to say, abstains from giving us wordy evidence of the fact.
George Eliot, Impressions of Theophrastus Such
11. When words become unclear, I shall focus with photographs. When images become inadequate, I shall be content with silence.
Ansel Adams
12. I need to be alone. I need to ponder my shame and my despair in seclusion; I need the sunshine and the paving stones of the streets without companions, without conversation, face to face with myself, with only the music of my heart for company.
Henry Miller, Tropic of Cancer
13. God is silent. Now if only man would shut up.
Woody Allen
14. How much better is silence; the coffee cup, the table. How much better to sit by myself like the solitary sea-bird that opens its wings on the stake. Let me sit here for ever with bare things, this coffee cup, this knife, this fork, things in themselves, myself being myself.
Virginia Woolf, The Waves
15. My personal hobbies are reading, listening to music, and silence.
Edith Sitwell
16. When truth is replaced by silence,the silence is a lie.
Yevgeny Yevtushenko
17. He who does not understand your silence will probably not understand your words.
Elbert Hubbard
18. Does not everything depend on our interpretation of the silence around us?
Lawrence Durrell, Justine
19. Nothing strengthens authority so much as silence.
Leonardo da Vinci
20. Silence is a source of Great Strength.
Lao Tzu
21. Words can be twisted into any shape. Promises can be made to lull the heart and seduce the soul. In the final analysis, words mean nothing. They are labels we give things in an effort to wrap our puny little brains around their underlying natures, when ninety-nine percent of the time the totality of the reality is an entirely different beast. The wisest man is the silent one. Examine his actions. Judge him by them.
Karen Marie Moning
22. You have a grand gift for silence, Watson. It makes you quite invaluable as a companion.
Arthur Conan Doyle, The Complete Sherlock Holmes
23. The true genius shudders at incompleteness — imperfection — and usually prefers silence to saying the something which is not everything that should be said.
Edgar Allan Poe, Marginalia
24. Have you ever heard the wonderful silence just before the dawn? Or the quiet and calm just as a storm ends? Or perhaps you know the silence when you haven’t the answer to a question you’ve been asked, or the hush of a country road at night, or the expectant pause of a room full of people when someone is just about to speak, or, most beautiful of all, the moment after the door closes and you’re alone in the whole house? Each one is different, you know, and all very beautiful if you listen carefully.
Norton Juster, The Phantom Tollbooth
25. Silence is only frightening to people who are compulsively verbalizing.
William S. Burroughs, The Job: Interviews with William S. Burroughs
26. For now she need not think of anybody. She could be herself, by herself. And that was what now she often felt the need of – to think; well not even to think. To be silent; to be alone. All the being and the doing, expansive, glittering, vocal, evaporated; and one shrunk, with a sense of solemnity, to being oneself, a wedge-shaped core of darkness, something invisible to others… and this self having shed its attachments was free for the strangest adventures.
Virginia Woolf, To the Lighthouse
27. As happens sometimes, a moment settled and hovered and remained for much more than a moment. And sound stopped and movement stopped for much, much more than a moment.
John Steinbeck, Of Mice and Men
28. Seeing her sitting there unresponsive makes me realize that silence has a sound.
Jodi Picoult, My Sister’s Keeper
29. On the fifth day, which was a Sunday, it rained very hard. I like it when it rains hard. It sounds like white noise everywhere, which is like silence but not empty.
Mark Haddon, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
30. You are most powerful when you are most silent. People never expect silence. They expect words, motion, defense, offense, back and forth. They expect to leap into the fray. They are ready, fists up, words hanging leaping from their mouths. Silence? No.
Alison McGhee, All Rivers Flow to the Sea
Relationship Silence Quotes
Relationships have their own intricate language, spoken through both words and the moments of silence shared between two individuals. In the realm of relationships, silence can be both comforting and unsettling. It can be a refuge where understanding transcends the need for words, or it can become a breeding ground for unspoken pain and unmet expectations.
Relationship silence quotes capture the complexities of these silent moments, shedding light on the emotions, desires, and unvoiced struggles that shape our connections. From the quiet tension of unresolved conflicts to the comforting silence of shared intimacy, these quotes navigate the delicate balance between the power of spoken words and the significance of the unspoken. They invite us to reflect on the nuances of communication within relationships, reminding us that silence, too, has a language of its own.
31. At least if I keep my love a secret, he and I can still have this wonderful, odd, exciting relationship where I love him in silence and pretend he’s loving me in silence too.
Katy Evans
32. Life’s most deep feelings are often expressed in silence and the one who can read volumes from your silence is your true companion.
Ritu Ghatourey
33. A fair request should be followed by the deed in silence.
Dante Alighieri
34. After another moment’s silence, she mumbled that I was peculiar, that that was probably why she loved me but that one day I might disgust her for the very same reason
Albert Camus
35. She keeps telling herself and others that she doesn’t want a relationship to silence the longing in her soul. That alternative fact feeds her insecurities and starves her soul.
Sanjo Jendayi
36. Sorrow and silence are strong, and patient endurance is godlike.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
37. To communicate through silence is a link between the thoughts of man.
Marcel Marceau
38. My fear of being real, of being seen, paralyzes me into silence. I crave the touch and the connection, but I’m not always brave enough to open my hand and reach out. This is the great challenge: to be seen, accepted, and loved, I must first reveal, offer, and surrender.
Anna White
39. Silence is argument carried out by other means.
Che Guevara
40. The deepest feeling always shows itself in silence; not in silence, but restraint.
Marianne Moore
41. It’s only in silence that you can judge of your relationship to a person.
Dorothy Richardson
42. He who does not understand your silence will probably not understand your words.
Elbert Hubbard
43. The longer the silence remains untouched the longer the miscommunication creates its own stories.
Christina Strigas
44. I prefer not to elaborate on the various stages of our dealings over the next few days – disbelief, anger, recrimination, the raking up of old sores, bitter silence and so on – but I can say that they gave lasting strength to our relationship, like a thick scar is stronger than the skin around it.
John Mole
45. The best part of silence is that the ego is switched off at least for a while, and we are focusing our attention inwards.
Dada J. P. Vaswani
46. Staying silent is like a slow growing cancer to the soul and a trait of a true coward. There is nothing intelligent about not standing up for yourself. You may not win every battle. However, everyone will at least know what you stood for – you.
Shannon L. Alder
47. Just close your eyes and come and meet me in that place where we can share the music of our silence.
Mimi Novic
48. Silence can have tremendous healing power, but this should not be confused with loneliness.
Itayi Garande
49. The next time there’s an awkward silence, try whispering, “Did you forget your line?
Nitya Prakash
50. If there were a little more silence, if we all kept quiet…maybe we could understand something.
Federico Fellini
51. Staying quiet doesn’t always mean “I’m agreeing with you.” It sometimes means “I don’t think it’s worth arguing with you.
Mouloud Benzadi
52. Silence cannot be mispronounced, Silence cannot be misinterpreted, silence cannot be misquoted.
Amit Kalantri
53. The silence stretched out between us as I stared at him, the tears blurring my vision as I waited for him to save me from this torment. Surely he could find a way.
Kathryn Michaels
54. The policy of self-isolation and continuous silence are the greatest destroyers of marriage and relationship.
Mwanandeke Kindembo
55. Silence is always golden but it becomes imitation junk when communication breaks between relationships.
Amit Abraham
56. Sometimes silence can be beautiful. But you should try to communicate openly with your loved ones and pour your heart into the ears of understanding.
Mwanandeke Kindembo
57. The fundamentalists are insistent that they know best. It’s a dictatorial attitude towards personal morality, which is a modern creation that came about in the 19th century.
Steve Coogan
58. Silence is the safest course for any man to adopt who distrusts himself.
François De La Rochefoucauld
59. Silence (in a relationship) is never your friend. Communication is the pathway to healing and growth.
Ilya Atani
60. The things that we understand, create silence. The things that we do not, create emotion.
Kapil Gupta
Hurt Silence Quotes
61. Silence is pure and holy. It draws people together because only those who are comfortable with each other can sit without speaking.
Nicholas Sparks, The Notebook
62. I gave up something I wanted for something I need. And I need you, Angel.
Becca Fitzpatrick
63. All the being and the doing, expansive, glittering, vocal, evaporated; and one shrunk, with a sense of solemnity, to being oneself, a wedge-shaped core of darkness, something invisible to others.
Virginia Woolf, To the Lighthouse
64. Make peace with silence, and remind yourself that it is in this space that you’ll come to remember your spirit. When you’re able to transcend an aversion to silence, you’ll also transcend many other miseries. And it is in this silence that the remembrance of God will be activated.
Wayne W. Dyer
65. I’ve been ignored by prettier women than you, but none who carried the heavy pitchers of silence so far, without spilling a drop.
Jeffrey McDaniel
66. The most colorful thing in the world is black and white, it contains all colors and at the same time excludes all.
Vikrmn, 10 Alone
67. God whispered, “You endured a lot. For that I am truly sorry, but grateful. I needed you to struggle to help so many. Through that process you would grow into who you have now become. Didn’t you know that I gave all my struggles to my favorite children? One only needs to look at the struggles given to your older brother Jesus to know how important you have been to me.
Shannon L. Alder
68. I imagine what it must be like to stay hidden, disappear in the dusky nothing and stay still in the night. It’s not sadness, though it may sound like it. I’m thinking about people and trees and how I wish I could be silent more, be more tree than anything else, less clumsy and loud, less crow, more cool white pine, and how it’s hard not to always want something else, not just to let the savage grass grow.
Ada Limon, Bright Dead Things
69. When you sit in silence long enough, you learn that silence has a motion. It glides over you without shape or form, exactly like water. Its color is silver. And silence has a sound you hear only after hours of wading inside it. The sound is soft, like flute notes rising up, like the words of glass speaking. Then there comes a point when you must shatter the blindness of its words, the blindness of its light.
Anne Spollen, The Shape of Water
70. She extended a hand that I didn’t know how to take, so I broke its fingers with my silence.
Jonathan Safran Foer, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close
71. The daggers of silence last longer than anything ever spoken.
Shannon L. Alder
72. Sometimes a people lose their right to remain silent when pressured to remain silent.
Criss Jami, Killosophy
73. No man is brave that has never walked a hundred miles. If you want to know the truth of who you are, walk until not a person knows your name. Travel is the great leveler, the great teacher, bitter as medicine, crueler than mirror-glass. A long stretch of road will teach you more about yourself than a hundred years of quiet introspection.
Patrick Rothfuss, The Wise Man’s Fear
74. Maybe I was naïve to think that silence was implicit complacence, instead of a festering question. Maybe I was silly to believe that friends owed each other anything.
Jodi Picoult, Handle with Care
74. Silence can often be more disturbing than noise, it reveals the complicated mechanism of our thoughts
Jose Rodrigues Migueis
75. A star shoots bleeding across the skyline, a companion to the black wind. Silence comes sweeping across everything.
Joe Bousquet
76. In a world where language and naming are power, silence is oppression, is violence.
Adrienne Rich, On Lies, Secrets, and Silence. Selected Prose 1966-1978
76. Penetrate deep into the word “Om”. Gradually the word will disappear and only the silence will remain. The word is a support. The meaning is within you. Om brings out that meaning which is hidden in your soul.
Amit Ray, Om Chanting and Meditation
77. Because sometimes when someone is telling you something really important, it’s best to just let there be silence, to really think about what they’re saying. A lot of times people think they have to say something all insightful or wise or something to try and make the person feel better. But really, sometimes silence is best.
Lauren Barnholdt, The Thing About the Truth
78. Be leery of silence. It doesn’t mean you won the argument. Often, people are just busy reloading their guns.
Shannon L. Alder
79. We can make our minds so like still water that beings gather about us that they may see, it may be, their own images, and so live for a moment with a clearer, perhaps even with a fiercer life because of our quiet.
William Butler Yeats, The Celtic Twilight: Faerie and Folklore
80. A heart worth loving is one you understand, even in silence.
Shannon L. Alder
Remember, silence may hurt, but it also holds the potential for profound healing and growth. Embrace the power of your voice, for within it lies the key to unlocking the shackles of silent pain and embracing a life filled with authenticity, connection, and emotional well-being.
