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They took silence for assent, as the zealous often do.

— Sarah Monette The Goblin Emperor (2014)

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Silence

More quotes by Sarah Monette

“It will cause a great many changes.”
“Yes, but one cannot prevent change simply by wishing it not to happen.”

The Goblin Emperor (2014)

The oaths were no more than a formal deterrent to troublemaking, but they were better than no deterrent at all.

The Goblin Emperor (2014)

He did not entirely believe himself, but he knew he had best pretend he did.

The Goblin Emperor (2014)

He could tell by the quality of her silence that she did not believe him, but if there was an advantage to being emperor, it was that she could not call him a liar to his face.

The Goblin Emperor (2014)

His mother had been the world to him, and although she had done her best to prepare him, he had been too young to fully understand what death meant—until she was gone, and the great, raw, gaping hole in his heart could not be filled or patched or mended. He looked for her everywhere, even after he had been shown her body—looked and looked and she could not be found.

The Goblin Emperor (2014)

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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: Sarah Monette (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.