Saying Nothing Quotes

• Failure should be our teacher, not our undertaker. Failure is delay, not defeat. It is a temporary detour, not a dead end. Failure is something we can avoid only by saying nothing, doing nothing, and being nothing.

  Denis Waitley

  Motivational, Change, Teacher

  90 Copy quote
• 

  Criticism is something we can avoid easily
  by saying nothing, doing nothing,
  and being nothing.

  Aristotle

  Inspirational, Relationship, Failure

  577 Copy quote

• Saying nothing... sometimes says the most.

  Emily Dickinson

  Life, Wisdom, Communication

  132 Copy quote

• There is nothing worse than doing nothing and saying nothing when your voice is needed.

  Soledad O'Brien

  Voice, Doing Nothing, Needed

  32 Copy quote

• The finest command of language is often shown by saying nothing.

  Roger Babson

  Language, Finest, Command

  10 Copy quote

• The trouble is that once you see it, you can't unsee it. And once you've seen it, keeping quiet, saying nothing, becomes as political an act as speaking out. There's no innocence. Either way, you're accountable.

  Arundhati Roy

  Political, Way, Keeping Quiet

  Arundhati Roy (2001). “Power Politics”

  30 Copy quote

  Show source

• Yet we must say something when those who say the most are saying nothing.

  Saint Augustine

  29 Copy quote

• You can't improve on saying nothing.

  Golda Meir

  Silence

  Golda Meir, Israel Shenker, Mary Shenker (1970). “As good as Golda: the warmth and wisdom of Israel's Prime Minister”

  22 Copy quote

  Show source

• I do know of these That therefore only are reputed wise For saying nothing.

  William Shakespeare

  Wise, Silence, Merchant Of Venice

  'The Merchant of Venice' (1596-8) act 1, sc. 1, l. 88

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• A true Zen saying: "Nothing is what I want.

  Frank Zappa

  Want

  Song: Dummy up, 1974

  15 Copy quote

  Show source

• We stood there, looking at each other, saying nothing. But it was the kind of nothing that meant everything.

  Jenny Han

  Love, Life, Regret

  Jenny Han (2011). “It's Not Summer Without You”, p.273, Simon and Schuster

  26 Copy quote

  Show source

• Why waste a sentence saying nothing?

  Seth Godin

  Successful, Inspire, Marketing

  7 Copy quote

• You're like a dull knife, just ain't cuttin', just talkin' loud and saying nothing

  James Brown

  Knives, Dull, Loud

  8 Copy quote

• Sometimes being a good friend means saying nothing.

  Kristin Hannah

  Mean, Good Friend, Sometimes

  Kristin Hannah (2014). “The Kristin Hannah Collection: Volume 1: Firefly Lane, True Colors, Fly Away”, p.101, St. Martin's Griffin

  4 Copy quote

  Show source
• 

  To avoid criticism, do nothing, say nothing and be nothing.

  Elbert Hubbard

  Inspirational, Life, Motivational

  "Little Journeys to the Homes of American Statesmen" by Elbert Hubbard, (p. 370), 1898.

  106 Copy quote

  Show source

• I said nothing. I’m good at saying nothing. I don’t like talking. I could go the rest of my life without saying another word, if I had to.

  Lee Child

  Talking, Said, Ifs

  Lee Child (2015). “The Essential Jack Reacher, Volume 2, 6-Book Bundle: 61 Hours, Worth Dying For, The Affair, A Wanted Man, Never Go Back, Personal”, p.649, Delacorte Press

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• Sometimes speech is no more than a device for saying nothing - and a neater one than silence.

  Simone de Beauvoir

  Silence, Speech, Sometimes

  Simone de Beauvoir (1965). “The prime of life”

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• It's better to say nothing than spend 1,000 words or an hour speech saying nothing. Get to the point.

  Richard Branson

  Speech, Hours

  4 Copy quote

• For common minds have an ugly ability to perceive in the deepest and richest saying nothing but their own everyday opinion.

  Jean-Paul Sartre

  Mind, Everyday, Ugly

  4 Copy quote

• He: What’s the matter with you? Me: Nothing. Nothing was slowly clotting my arteries. Nothing slowly numbing my soul. Caught by nothing, saying nothing, nothingness becomes me. When I am nothing they will say surprised in the way that they are forever surprised, "but there was nothing the matter with her.

  Jeanette Winterson

  Forever, Soul, Matter

  3 Copy quote

• It is a great, a pleasant thing to have a friend with whom to walk, untroubled, through the woods, by the stream, saying nothing, at peace--the heart all clean and quiet and empty, ready for the spirit that may choose to be its guest.

  Catherine Drinker Bowen

  Peace, Heart, Guests

  Catherine Drinker Bowen (1939). “Friends and fiddlers”

  3 Copy quote

  Show source

• Gossip is the art of saying nothing in a way that leaves practically nothing unsaid.

  Walter Winchell

  Art, Gossip, Way

  23 Copy quote

• As it is the characteristic of great wits to say much in few words, so small wits seem to have the gift of speaking much and saying nothing.

  Francois de La Rochefoucauld

  Wisdom, Few Words, Characteristics

  7 Copy quote

• There is little much beyond the grave, but the strong are saying nothing until they see.

  Robert Frost

  Strong, Littles, Graves

  Robert Frost (1936). “A Further Range”

  3 Copy quote

  Show source

• Among friends one has the privilege of saying nothing; the civility consists in the assumption that one's silence will be civilly understood. I can imagine a small gathering of friends who say nothing all evening: they recoil from saying anything that the others don't want to hear; and their silence would be the subtlest courtesy.

  Allen Tate

  Friendship, Silence, Gathering

  Allen Tate (1967). “T. S. Eliot: The Man and His Work”, London : Chatto & Windus

  3 Copy quote

  Show source