Silent Quotes - Page 15

• Television is a new, hard test of our wisdom. If we succeed in mastering the new medium it will enrich us. But it can also put our mind to sleep. We must not forget that in the past the inability to transport immediate experience and to convey it to others made the use of language necessary and thus compelled the human mind to develop concepts. For in order to describe things one must draw the general from the specific; one must select, compare, think. When communication can be achieved by pointing with the finger, however, the mouth grows silent, the writing hand stops, and the mind shrinks.

  Rudolf Arnheim

  Communication, Sleep, Writing

  Rudolf Arnheim (1957). “Film as Art”, p.195, Univ of California Press

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• Even the ignorant may appear very worthy,
  If they keep silent before the learned.

  Thiruvalluvar

  Ignorant, May, Worthy

  "Tirukkural". Book by Thiruvalluvar, 1840.

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• People knew about Babi Yar before Yevtushenko's poem, but they were silent. And when they read the poem, the silence was broken. Art destroys silence.

  Dmitri Shostakovich

  Art, People, Broken

  "Testimony". Book by Solomon Volkov, transl. by Antonina W. Bouis, New York: Limelight, p. 159, 2004.

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• To fall for," "to be fallen for"--I feel in these words something unspeakably vulgar, farcical, and at the same time extraordinarily complacent. Once these expressions put in an appearance, no matter how solemn the place, the silent cathedrals of melancholy crumble, leaving nothing but an impression of fatuousness. It is curious, but the cathedrals of melancholy are not necessarily demolished if one can replace the vulgar "What a messy business it is to be fallen for" by the more literary "What uneasiness lies in being loved.

  Osamu Dazai

  Love, Lying, Fall

  Osamu Dazai (1973). “No Longer Human”, p.47, New Directions Publishing

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• I know the woman has no soul, I know The woman has no possibilities Of soul or mind or heart, but merely is The masterpiece of flesh: well, be it so. It is her flesh that I adore; I go Thirsting afresh to drain her empty kiss. I know she cannot love: it is not this My vanquished heart implores in overthrow. Tyrannously I crave, I crave alone, Her splendid body, Earth's most eloquent Music, divinest human harmony; Her body now a silent instrument, That 'neath my touch shall wake and make for me The strains I have but dreamed of, never known.

  Arthur Symons

  Women, Heart, Kissing

  Arthur Symons (1919). “Poems”

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• In order to remain silent Da-sein must have something to say.

  Martin Heidegger

  Order

  "Being and Time". Book by Martin Heidegger, translated by Joan Stambaugh, 1996.

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• For as long as men and women have talked about war, they have talked about it in terms of right and wrong. And for almost as long, some among them have derided such talk, called it a charade, insisted that war lies beyond (or beneath) moral judgment. War is a world apart, where life itself is at stake, where human nature is reduced to its elemental forms, where self-interest and necessity prevail. Here men and women do what they must to save themselves and their communities, and morality and law have no place. Inter arma silent leges: in time of war the law is silent.

  Michael Walzer

  War, Lying, Men

  Michael Walzer (2015). “Just and Unjust Wars: A Moral Argument with Historical Illustrations”, p.26, Basic Books

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• It is thus quite simply false that whereof one cannot speak (in the sense of 'there is nothing to say about it that specifies it and grants it separating properties'), thereof one must be silent. It must on the contrary be named.

  Alain Badiou

  Speak, Grants, Contrary

  Alain Badiou (1999). “Manifesto for Philosophy”, p.95, SUNY Press

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• Before the invader sound was born, the Universe was silent and shall be again.

  Robert E. Howard

  Sound, Born, Invaders

  Robert E. Howard (2006). “Kull: Exile of Atlantis”, p.163, Del Rey

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• The Lord of Learning who upraised mankind from being silent brutes to singing men.

  Charles Godfrey Leland

  Learning, Men, Singing

  Charles Godfrey Leland (1872). “The Music-lesson of Confucius, and Other Poems”, p.2

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• Ballet for a rainy day Silent film of melting miracle play Dancing out there through my window To the backdrop of a slow descending grey

  Andy Partridge

  Rainy Day, Silent Films, Play

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• It is strange how the elderly fall silent when they ought to go on speaking, obliging the young to learn everything from scratch.

  Jose Saramago

  Fall, Elderly, Scratches

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• Whether we consider Nazi Germany or Abu Ghraib prison, there were many people who observed what was happening and said nothing. At Abu Ghraib, one photo shows two soldiers smiling before a pyramid of naked prisoners while a dozen other soldiers stand around watching passively. If you observe such abuses and don't say, "This is wrong! Stop it!" you give tacit approval to continue. You are part of the silent majority that makes evil deeds more acceptable.

  Philip Zimbardo

  Two, Pyramids, Evil

  "The Banality of Heroism" by Zeno Franco, Philip Zimbardo, greatergood.berkeley.edu. September 1, 2006.

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• Tucker: You guys going to Milwaukee? Guy: Yes sir, heading home after a vacation. Tucker: Did you know there are midgets in Milwaukee? [The man and his wife are silent and confused.] Tucker: HUNDREDS OF THEM!

  Tucker Max

  Confused, Home, Men

  Tucker Max (2011). “Assholes Finish First”, p.123, Simon and Schuster

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• It is not the roaring thunder that smites, but the silent lightning.

  Ivan Panin

  Lightning, Roaring, Thunder

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• Let the vow of this day keep itself wildly and wholly Spoken and silent, surprise you inside your ears Sleeping and waking, unfold itself inside your eyes Let its fierceness and tenderness hold you Let its vastness be undisguised in all your days.

  Jane Hirshfield

  Sleep, Eye, Vastness

  Jane Hirshfield (2011). “Come, Thief: Poems”, p.55, Knopf

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• This gathered worship, as Quakers call it, is not only absence of noise. Gathered worship springs from the reverent, silent expectation that God will come among the people. The silence deepens as we feel ourselves drawn beautifully to God and each other. Our hearts and souls burst with thanksgiving-a thanksgiving best expressed by silence. Silence growing from awe is the natural human response to hints of the Divine.

  J. Brent Bill

  Spring, Heart, People

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• The importance of writing in the breakdown of the bicameral voices is tremendously important. What had to be spoken is now silent and carved upon a stone to be taken in visually.

  Julian Jaynes

  Taken, Writing, Voice

  Julian Jaynes (2000). “The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind”, p.312, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• We glorify those who left their names in history books at the expense of those contributors about whom our books are silent. We humans are not just a superficial race - we are a very unfair one.

  Nassim Nicholas Taleb

  Book, Race, Names

  Nassim Nicholas Taleb (2010). “The Black Swan: Second Edition: The Impact of the Highly Improbable Fragility"”, p.28, Random House

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• Christmas is ... a time to mark our progress through this earthly journey. Every December we can look back and marvel at the designs of God and realize how very little we are in control of the events that shaped the past year. Then, with hearts full, look to the celebration of that silent, holy night, and all its certainty. Because of Christmas, this we know: Christ was born for us. He is love, and the plans he has for us always surpass those of our own.

  Karen Kingsbury

  Christmas, Heart, Past

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• Mary Magdalene beat her breasts and sobbed,
  His dear disciple, stone-faced, stared.
  His mother stood apart. No other looked
  into her secret eyes. Nobody dared.

  Anna Akhmatova

  Mother, Stones, Beloved

  "Crucifixion". Poem by Anna Akhmatova, 1940-1943.

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• Imagine that for hundreds of years your most formative traumas, your daily suffering and pain, the abuse you live through, the terror you live with, are unspeakable - not the basis of literature. You grow up with your father holding you down and covering your mouth so another man can make a horrible searing pain between your legs.... You learn how to leave your body and create someone else who takes over when you cannot stand it any more. You develop a self who is ingratiating and obsequious and imitative and aggressively passive and silent - you learn, in a word, femininity.

  Catharine MacKinnon

  Growing Up, Pain, Father

  "Only Words". Book by Catharine MacKinnon, 1993.

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• I sing the hymn of the conquered, who fell in the Battle of Life,-The hymn of the wounded, the beaten, who died overwhelmed in the strife....The hymn of the low and the humble, the weary, the broken in heart,Who strove and who failed, acting bravely a silent and desperate part.

  William Wetmore Story

  Heart, Humble, Hymns

  William Wetmore Story, “Io Victis”

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• I believe that happiness can be found. If I thought otherwise, I should be silent and not make unhappiness the more bitter by discussing it.

  Carl Hilty

  Happiness, Believe, Bitter

  Carl Hilty (2013). “Happiness - Essays On The Meaning Of Life”, p.55, Read Books Ltd

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• Back in the early 1960s, when I was eight or nine. Some neighborhood boys and I saw a disc-shaped, windowless object that hovered, silent, then simply vanished. My parents said, "That's very nice" and ignored it, but I knew what I'd seen, and it was life-changing.

  Steven M. Greer

  Nice, Life Changing, Boys

  "UFOs: What the Government Really Knows" by Jean-Noel Bassior, November 2005.

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