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a perpetual stranger
am I to the world
I don't understand its language
my silence it can't comprehend

— Bei Dao The August Sleepwalker (1990)

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Notes from Wikiquote

In the world I am Always a stranger I do not understand its language It does not understand my silence

Topics

Silence

More quotes by Bei Dao

Freedom is nothing but the distance
between the hunter and the hunted

The August Sleepwalker (1990)

I am no hero
In an age without heroes
I just want to be a man

The August Sleepwalker (1990)

Many languages fly around the world
producing sparks when they collide
sometimes of hate
sometimes of love

I will not kneel on the ground
Allowing the executioners to look tall
The better to obstruct the wind of freedom

The August Sleepwalker (1990)

Let me tell you, world,
I—do—not—believe!
If a thousand challengers lie beneath your feet,
Count me as number one thousand and one. I don't believe the sky is blue:
I don't believe in thunder's echoes;
I don't believe that dreams are false:
I don't believe that death has no revenge.

The August Sleepwalker (1990)

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To sin by silence, when we should protest,
Makes cowards out of men.

Ella Wheeler Wilcox New Thought Pastels (1913)

Blessed is the man who, having nothing to say, abstains from giving us wordy evidence of the fact.

George Eliot

There are times when good words are to be left unsaid out of esteem for silence.

Benedict of Nursia

I think television has betrayed the meaning of democratic speech, adding visual chaos to the confusion of voices. What role does silence have in all this noise?

Federico Fellini I'm a Born Liar (2003)

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Bei Dao (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.