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You can listen to silence, Reuven. I've begun to realize that you can listen to silence and learn from it. It has a quality and dimension all its own.

— Chaim Potok The Chosen (1967)

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Silence

More quotes by Chaim Potok

It is never pleasant to be a buffer, Reuven.

The Chosen (1967)

It was senseless, as— I held my breath, feeling myself shiver with fear— as Billy's blindness was senseless.

The Chosen (1967)

I don't understand why I wanted to kill you.

The Chosen (1967)

Reuven, as you grow older you will discover that the most important things that will happen to you will often come as a result of silly things, as you call them— "ordinary things" is a better expression. That is the way the world is.

The Chosen (1967)

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