Quotes / Silence Is Golden

People talking without speaking
People hearing without listening
People writing songs that voices never shared
No one dared
Disturb the sound of silence

—Simon & Garfunkel, "Sounds of Silence."

Silence is golden. Which is doubtless the reason why the medium of the talking motion picture is described as the silver screen.

— George Jean Nathan

When they see me, the audience becomes uneasy. They try to match my face to that of the Hitler actors they know. I see their unease, which my mere gaze transforms into breathless silence. An assistant gives me a sign, as if I'd forgotten my lines. It was clear that in the face of this seeming inaction, that amateur Witzigmann started to sweat. Witzigmann doesn't understand the power of silence, he feared it. I let the air flow into my lungs... and give the silence... a sound.

—Adolf Hitler in his Internal Monologue in the minutes before beginning his speech on Krass, Alter!, Look Who's Back

But how could you possibly tell her? You do that because sometimes you have epiphanies and you realise that you just love her so much. So much that words fail you. For all your writing and in-depth observation of feelings, for all your psychology reading and learning of long forgotten meanings, words fail you.

So how could you possibly use them, when they don’t exist?

— From this zellkabellk Homestuck fic

Question: Did Junpei get to talk more with Akane off-screen, and if so, what about?
Answer: For Junpei there are 45 years worth of feelings, and for Akane, a million years worth of feelings and emotions, resonating within them both. There is no way I can write them all here. But what I think is that there was a tranquil and majestic silence between the two of them.

Maybe just looking into one another’s eyes was enough for them.

— Word of God elaborating on the ending of Virtue's Last Reward (fanart here)

It's the great, big, broad land 'way up yonder,
It's the forests where silence has lease;
It's the beauty that thrills me with wonder,
It's the stillness that fills me with peace.

— "The Spell of the Yukon", a poem by Robert W Service

Like silence, but not really silent.
Just that still sort of quiet.
Like the sound of a page being turned in a book.
Or a pause in a walk in the woods.

— "Quiet", Matilda: The Musical

But there, where spreads the infinite sky for the soul to take her flight in, reigns the stainless white radiance. There is no day nor night, nor form nor colour, and never, never a word.

— Rabindranath Tagore's "Gitanjali"

Elmo: Elmo saw Gordon play a flute, But no music came out. Then Elmo saw the kids playing, But no chattering. Then Elmo saw Bob talking, But no words come out.

Bob: Well, Elmo. You have a good imagination. Now, You know what it's like to be deaf. No sound.

— Sesame Street

"..."

— John Cage , " 4'33" "

"That's when you know you've found somebody special. When you can just shut the fuck up for a minute and comfortably enjoy the silence."

—Mia Wallace, Pulp Fiction

Viggo Tarasov: [on the phone] Hello, John.
John Wick: ...
Viggo Tarasov: I heard about your wife, and I'm sorry. My condolences.
John Wick: ...
Viggo Tarasov: It seems to be fate, or happenstance... or just bad fuckin' luck caused our paths to cross once again.
John Wick: ...
Viggo Tarasov: John?
John Wick: ...
Viggo Tarasov: Let us not resort to our baser instincts... and handle this like civilized men... to move on—
John Wick: [hangs up]
Avi: What'd he say?
Viggo Tarasov: Enough.

— John Wick

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