How silent are the winds! [ Barry Cornwall ]
Going to ruin is silent work. [ Gaelic Proverb ]
The law is silent during war. [ Cicero ]
Laws are silent in time of war. [ Cicero ]
Our father's dust is left alone
And silent under other snows. [ Tennyson ]
Speak fitly or be silent wisely. [ English Proverb, collected by George Herbert ]
Like a dart the present glances,
Silent stands the past sublime. [ Schiller ]
Deep in my shut and silent heart. [ Byron ]
The silent man still suffers wrong. [ J. P. Collier ]
The muffled drum's sad roll has beat
The soldier's last tattoo;
No more on Life's parade shall meet
The brave and fallen few.
On Fame's eternal camping-ground
Their silent tents are spread.
And Glory guards, with solemn round
The bivouac of the dead. [ Theodore O'Hara ]
Her eyes are homes of silent prayer. [ Tennyson ]
In blissful dream, in silent night.
There came to me, with magic might,
With magic might, my own sweet love,
Into my little room above. [ Heine ]
Silent anguish is the more dangerous. [ Racine ]
Laws are silent in the midst of arms. [ John Bate ]
Laws are the silent assessors of God. [ W. R. Alger ]
Thine eyes are springs in whose serene
And silent waters heaven is seen. [ William Cullen Bryant ]
Fate steals along with silent tread,
Found oftenest in what least we dread;
Frowns in the storm with angry brow,
But in the sunshine strikes the blow. [ William Cowper ]
Gird your hearts with silent fortitude,
Suffering, yet hoping all things. [ Mrs. Hemans ]
Tears are the silent language of grief. [ Voltaire ]
He that wrongs his friend
Wrongs himself more, and ever bears about
A silent court of justice in his breast,
Himself the judge and jury, and himself
The prisoner at the bar, ever condemned. [ Alfred Tennyson ]
Convulsive anger storms at large; or pale
And silent, settles into full revenge. [ Thomson ]
Sin writes histories; goodness Is silent. [ Goethe ]
A fool when he is silent is counted wise. [ Proverb ]
The surest pledge of a deathless name
Is the silent homage of thoughts unspoken. [ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow ]
Sweet, silent rhetoric of persuading eyes. [ Sir W. Davenant ]
The balmy zephyrs, silent since her death,
Lament the ceasing of a sweeter breath. [ Pope ]
The deepest rivers make least din,
The silent soule doth most abound in care. [ Earl of Stirling ]
Ye realms, yet unrevealed to human sight,
Ye gods who rule the regions of the night.
Ye gliding ghosts permit me to relate
The mystic wonders of your silent state. [ Dryden ]
Silent when glad; affectionate, though shy. [ Beattie ]
A fair exterior is a silent recommendation. [ Publius Syrus ]
Sleep and death, two twins of winged race,
Of matchless swiftness, but of silent pace. [ Pope ]
All round the room my silent servants wait,
My friends in every season, bright and dim. [ Barry Cornwall ]
Care-charmer Sleep, son of the sable Night,
Brother to Death, in silent darkness born;
Relieve my languish, and restore the light. [ Samuel Daniel ]
We hear the rain fall, but not the snow.
Bitter grief is loud, calm grief is silent. [ Auerbach ]
All were at once silent and listened intent. [ Virgil ]
Silent companions of the lonely hour,
Friends, who can alter or forsake,
Who for inconstant roving have no power,
And all neglect, perforce, must calmly take. [ Mrs. Norton ]
Spires whose silent finger points to heaven.
[ Wordsworth ]
Be silent, or speak something worth hearing. [ Proverb ]
When the heart is full, the lips are silent.
Gone before To that unknown and silent shore. [ Charles Lamb ]
For thee, O now a silent soul, my brother,
Take at my hands this garland and farewell,
Thin is the leaf, and chill the wintry smell,
And chill the solemn earth, a fatal mother. [ Swinburne ]
Be thy sleep Silent as night is, and as deep. [ Longfellow ]
Dumb jewels often, in their silent kind,
More than quick words do move a woman's mind. [ Two Gent. of Ver ]
Can storied urn or animated bust
Back to its mansion call the fleeting breath?
Can honour's voice provoke the silent dust,
Or flattery soothe the dull cold ear of death? [ Gray ]
In genial spring, beneath the quivering shade,
Where cooling vapors breathe along the mead,
The patient fisher takes his silent stand.
Intent, his angle trembling in his hand;
With looks unmoved, he hopes the scaly breed.
And eyes the dancing cork and bending reed. [ Pope ]
Have a care of a silent dog and a still water. [ Proverb ]
A judge is a speaking law, law a silent judge. [ Cicero ]
Who waits until the winds shall silent keep,
Will never have the ready hour to sow;
Who watcheth clouds will have no time to reap. [ Helen Hunt Jackson ]
Be silent and safe - silence never betrays you. [ John Boyle O'Reilly ]
To die is landing on some silent shore.
Where billows never break nor tempests roar;
Ere well we feel the friendly stroke 'tis over. [ Sir Samuel Garth ]
'Tis midnight now. The bent and broken moon,
Battered and black, as from a thousand battles,
Hangs silent on the purple walls of Heaven. [ Joaquin Miller ]
Leaving us heirs to amplest heritages
Of all the best thoughts of the greatest sages,
And giving tongues unto the silent dead! [ Longfellow ]
Those dreams, that on the silent night intrude,
And with false flitting shades our minds delude,
Jove never sends us downward from the skies;
Nor can they from infernal mansions rise;
But are all mere productions of the brain,
And fools consult interpreters in vain. [ Swift ]
O days remembered well! remembered all!
The bitter sweet, the honey and the gall;
Those garden rambles in the silent night.
Those trees so shady, and that moon so bright.
That thickset alley by the arbor closed.
That woodbine seat where we at last reposed;
And then the hopes that came and then were gone.
Quick as the clouds beneath the moon past on. [ Crabbe ]
Be silent, or say something better than silence. [ Pythagoras ]
Borne on the swift, tho' silent wings of time,
Old age comes on apace, to ravage all the clime. [ Beattie ]
That unfathomed, boundless sea, the silent grave! [ Longfellow ]
How beautiful is night!
A dewy freshness fills the silent air.
No mist obscures, nor cloud, nor speck, nor stain
Breaks the serene heaven:
In full-orb'd glory yonder moon divine
Rolls through the dark blue depths.
Beneath her steady ray
The desert circle spreads,
Like the round ocean, girdled with the sky.
How beautiful is night! [ Southey ]
Little griefs are loud, great sorrows are silent. [ Proverb ]
Hear me for my cause, and be silent that you may hear. [ William Shakespeare ]
Whoever has learned to love, has learned to be silent. [ Mme. de Sartory ]
Silent men, like still waters, are deep and dangerous. [ Proverb ]
Saying well makes us laugh; doing well makes us silent. [ French Proverb ]
Be silent, or say something that is better than silence. [ German Proverb ]
It is easier to know how to speak, than how to be silent. [ Proverb ]
Let us be silent, so we may hear the whisper of the gods. [ Emerson ]
Be silent before a great man, or speak what may please him. [ Proverb ]
Painting is silent poetry, and poetry is a speaking picture. [ Simonides ]
She has an eye that could speak, though her tongue were silent. [ Aaron Hill ]
Oh! how seldom the soul is silent, in order that God may speak. [ Fenelon ]
O mysterious Night! thou art not silent; many tongues hast thou. [ Joanna Baillie ]
Convictions that remain silent are neither sincere nor profound.
I regret often that I have spoken, never that I have been silent. [ Publius Syrus ]
The habitual indulgence in such reading is a silent, mining mischief. [ Hannah More ]
Heavy sorrow is silent, and the deepest mourning is the most solitary. [ Charles Buxton ]
The silent snow possessed the earth, and calmly fell our Christmas-eve. [ Tennyson ]
It is the fate of a woman
Long to be patient and silent, to wait like a ghost that is speechless,
Till some questioning voice dissolves the spell of its silence. [ Longfellow ]
The pen is the tongue of the hand; a silent utterer of words for the eye. [ Henry Ward Beecher ]
To be silent is the safest course for the man who distrusts his own powers. [ La Rochefoucauld ]
To persevere in one's duty, and to be silent, is the best answer to calumny. [ George Washington ]
There are some silent people who are more interesting than the best talkers. [ Earl of Beaconsfield ]
A well-bred youth neither speaks of himself, nor, being spoken to, is silent. [ English Proverb, collected by George Herbert ]
To be silent is but a small virtue; but it is a serious fault to reveal secrets. [ Ovid ]
There is very great necessity indeed of getting a little more silent than we are. [ Carlyle ]
No reproof or denunciation is so potent as the silent influence of a good example. [ Hosea Ballou ]
And they three passed over the white sands, between the rocks, silent as the shadows. [ Coleridge ]
So the false spider, when her nets are spread, deep ambushed in her silent den does lie. [ Dryden ]
The grandest operations, both in nature and grace, are the most silent and imperceptible. [ Cecil ]
Still as the peaceful walks of ancient night; silent as are the lamps that burn on tombs. [ William Shakespeare ]
Can honor's voice provoke the silent dust, or flattery soothe the dull, cold ear of death? [ Gray ]
To know how to be silent is more difficult, and more profitable, than to know how to speak. [ Fee ]
A mother's prayers, silent and gentle, can never miss the road to the throne of all bounty. [ Henry Ward Beecher ]
He knows not how to speak who cannot be silent, still less how to act with vigour and decision. [ Lavater ]
Of every noble work the silent part is best; of all expression, that which cannot be expressed. [ W. W. Story ]
Take note of what you see, give heed to what you hear, and be silent. Judge little, inquire much. [ Platen ]
'Tis the cessation of our breath. Silent and motionless we lie; And no one knoweth more than thig. [ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow ]
It is safer to be silent than to reveal one's secret to any one, and telling him not to mention it. [ Saadi ]
Music is the metre of this poetic movement, and is an invisible dance, as dancing is a silent music. [ Richter ]
It is a great misfortune not to have enough wit to speak well, or not enough judgment to keep silent. [ La Bruyere ]
Touch not the lute when drums are sounding around; when fools have the word, the wise will be silent. [ Herder ]
In the silent night, weary mortals lull to rest their cares, and their hearts become forgetful of toil. [ Virgil ]
Death is a silent, peaceful genius, who rocks our second childhood to sleep in the cradle of the coffin. [ Chatfield ]
There is music in the beauty, and the silent note which Cupid strikes, far sweeter than the sound of an instrument. [ Sir Thomas Browne ]
There are attractions in modest diffidence above the force of words. A silent address is the genuine eloquence of sincerity. [ Goldsmith ]
Wine leads to folly, making even the wise to laugh immoderately, to dance, and to utter what had better have been kept silent. [ Homer ]
The night, proceeding on with silent pace, stood in her noon, and viewed with equal face her sleepy rise and her declining race. [ Dryden ]
Without tact you can learn nothing. Tact teaches you when to be silent. Inquirers who are always inquiring never learn anything. [ I. Disraeli ]
Of all the gifts that Nature can give us, the faculty of remaining silent, or of answering a propos, is perhaps the most useful. [ Mme. Campan ]
There are some moral conditions in which Death smiles upon us, as smiles a silent and peaceful night upon the exhausted laborer. [ Alfred Mercier ]
There never was a talent, even for real literature, but was primarily a talent for something infinitely better of the silent kind. [ Carlyle ]
To be able to be silent testifies of power, to will to be silent of indulgence, to be obliged to be silent of the spirit of the time. [ C. J. Weber ]
There are two ways of attaining an important end - force and perseverance; the silent power of the latter grows irresistible with time. [ Mme. Swetchine ]
Only when the voice of duty is silent, or when it has already spoken, may we allowably think of the consequences of a particular action. [ Hare ]
Remorseless time! fierce spirit of the glass and scythe. What power can stay him in his silent course, or melt his iron heart with pity! [ George D. Prentice ]
The scholar only knows how dear these silent yet eloquent companions of pure thoughts and innocent hours become in the season of adversity. [ Washington Irving ]
I think I am rather fond of silent people myself. I cannot bear to live with a person who feels compelled to talk because he is my companion. [ Disraeli ]
True dignity abides with him alone who, in the silent hour of inward thought, can still suspect and still revere himself in lowliness of heart. [ Wordsworth ]
I think the first virtue is to restrain the tongue; he approaches nearest to the gods who knows how to be silent, even though he is in the right. [ Cato ]
Great joy, especially after a sudden change and revolution of circumstances, is apt to be silent, and dwells rather in the heart than on the tongue. [ Fielding ]
There is something irresistibly pleasing in the conversation of a fine woman; even though her tongue be silent, the eloquence of her eyes teach wisdom. [ Goldsmith ]
Without books, God is silent, justice dormant, natural science at a stand, philosophy lame, letters dumb, and all things involved in Cimmerian darkness. [ Bartholin ]
In a tête-à-tête a woman speaks in a loud tone to the man she is indifferent to, in a low tone to the one she begins to love, and keeps silent with the one she loves. [ Rochebrune ]
The fame which bids fair to live the longest resembles that which Horace attributes to Marcellus, whose progress he compares to the silent, imperceptible growth of a tree. [ W. B. Clulow ]
The great silent man! Looking round on the noisy inanity of the world, - words with little meaning, actions with little worth, - one loves to reflect on the great Empire of Silence. [ Carlyle ]
Griefs are like the beings that endure them - the little ones are the most clamorous and noisy; those of older growth and greater magnitude are generally tranquil, and sometimes silent. [ Chatfield ]
An instinctive taste teaches men to build their churches in flat countries with spire-steeples, which, as they cannot be referred to any other object, point as with silent finger to the sky and stars. [ Coleridge ]
Give us the man who sings at his work! Be his occupation what it may, he will be equal to any of those who follow the same pursuit in silent sullenness. He will do more in the same time; he will do it better; he will persevere longer. [ Carlyle ]
We cannot speak a loyal word and be meanly silent; we cannot kill and not kill at the same moment; but a moment is room enough for the loyal and mean desire, for the outflash of a murderous thought, and the sharp backward stroke of repentance. [ George Eliot ]
There are two ways of attaining au important end - force and perseverance. Force falls to the lot only of the privileged few, but austere and sustained perseverance can be practiced by the most insignificant. Its silent power grows irresistible with time. [ Madame Swetchine ]
There are two kinds of artists in this world; those that work because the spirit is in them, and they cannot be silent if they would, and those that speak from a conscientious desire to make apparent to others the beauty that has awakened their own admiration. [ Anna Katharine Green ]
The silent power of books is a great power in the world; and there is a joy in reading them which those alone can know who read them with desire and enthusiasm. Silent, passive, and noiseless though they be, they may yet set in action countless multitudes, and change the order of nations. [ Henry Giles ]
The productions of the press, fast as steam can make and carry them, go abroad through all the land, silent as snowflakes, but potent as thunder. It is an additional tongue of steam and lightning, by which a man speaks his first thought, his instant argument or grievance, to millions in a day. [ Chapin ]
Because half a dozen grasshoppers under a fern make the field ring with their importunate chink, whilst thousands of great cattle, reposing beneath the shadow of the British oak, chew the cud and are silent, pray do not imagine that those who make the noise are the only inhabitants of the field. [ Burke ]
Looking round on the noisy inanity of the world, words with little meaning, actions with little worth, one loves to reflect on the great empire of silence. The noble silent men, scattered here and there each in his department, silently thinking, silently working; whom no morning newspaper makes mention of. [ Carlyle ]
Wise men, for the most part, are silent at present, and good men powerless; the senseless vociferate, and the heartless govern; while all social law and providence are dissolved by the enraged agitation of a multitude, among whom every villain has a chance of power, every simpleton of praise, and every scoundrel of fortune. [ John Ruskin ]
That great mystery of time, were there no other; the illimitable, silent never-resting thing called time,
rolling, rushing on, swift, silent like an all-embracing oceantide, on which we and all the universe swim like exhalations, like apparitions which are and then are not - this is for ever very literally a miracle, a thing to strike us dumb; for we have no word to speak about it. [ Carlyle ]
Living authors, therefore, are usually bad companions. If they have not gained character, they seek to do so by methods often ridiculous, always disgusting; and if they have established a character, they are silent for fear of losing by their tongue what they have acquired by their pen - for many authors converse much more foolishly than Goldsmith, who have never written half so well. [ Colton ]
I see the spectacle of morning from the hilltop over against my house, from daybreak to sunrise, with emotions which an angel might share. The long slender bars of cloud float like fishes in the sea of crimson light. From the earth, as a shore, I look out into that silent sea. I seem to partake its rapid transformations; the active enchantment reaches my dust, and I dilate and conspire with the morning wind. [ Emerson ]
We enter our studies, and enjoy a society which we alone can bring together. We raise no jealousy by conversing with one in preference to another; we give no offence to the most illustrious by questioning him as long as we will, and leaving him as abruptly. Diversity of opinion raises no tumult in our presence: each interlocutor stands before us, speaks or is silent, and we adjourn or decide the business at our leisure. [ Landor ]
Socrates called beauty a short-lived tyranny; Plato, a privilege of nature; Theophrastus, a silent cheat; Theocritus, a delightful prejudice; Carneades, a solitary kingdom; Domitian said, that nothing was more grateful; Aristotle afirmed that beauty was better than all the letters of recommendation in the world; Homer, that it was a glorious gift of nature, and Ovid, alluding to him, calls it a favor bestowed by the gods. [ From the Italian ]
When I gaze into the stars, they look down upon me with pity from their serene and silent spaces, like eyes glistening with tears over the little lot of man. Thousands of generations, all as noisy as our own, have been swallowed up by time, and there remains no record of them any more. Yet Arcturus and Orion, Sirius and Pleiades, are still shining in their courses, clear and young, as when the shepherd first noted them in the plain of Shinar! [ Carlyle ]
Always the idea of unbroken quiet broods around the grave. It is a port where the storms of life never beat, and the forms that have been tossed on its chafing waves lie quiet forever more. There the child nestles as peacefully as ever it lay in its mother's arms, and the workman's hands lie still by his side, and the thinker's brain is pillowed in silent mystery, and the poor girl's broken heart is steeped in a balm that extracts its secret woe, and is in the keeping of a charity that covers all blame. [ Chapin ]
The grandest operations, both in nature and in grace, are the most silent and imperceptible. The shallow brook babbles in its passage, and is heard by every one; but the coming on of the seasons is silent and unseen. The storm rages and alarms, but its fury is soon exhausted, and its effects are partial and soon remedied; but the dew, though gentle and unheard, is immense in quantity, and the very life of large portions of the earth. And these are pictures of the operations of grace in the church and in the soul. [ Cecil ]
The Christian cemetery is a memorial and a record. It is not a mere field in which the dead are stowed away unknown; it is a touching and beautiful history, written in family burial plots, in mounded graves, in sculptured and inscribed monuments. It tells the story of the past, - not of its institutions, or its wars, or its ideas, but of its individual lives, - of its men and women and children, and of its household. It is silent, but eloquent; it is common, but it is unique. We find no such history elsewhere; there are no records in all the wide world in which we can discover so much that is suggestive, so much that is pathetic and impressive. [ Joseph Anderson ]