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SICK/SICKNESS | SILENCE

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see: "HEALTH" for related links


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The remedy is worse than the disease.
--Francis Bacon (1561—1626)
English philosopher and essayist.
_Essays_ [1625], "Of Seditions and Troubles"


Cure the disease and kill the patient.
--Francis Bacon (1561—1626)
English philosopher and essayist.
_Essays_ [1625], "Of Friendship"

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People mean well and do not see how distancing insistent
cheeriness is, how it denies another's reality, denies a sick
person the space or right to be sick and in pain.
--Marilyn French (b. 1929)
American writer.
_A Season in Hell_ [1998]

As to diseases make a habit of two
things — to help, or at least, to do
no harm.
--Hippocrates (c. 460—377 BC)
Greek physician.
_Epidemics_, bk I, ch. 11

Bromodosis (odor caused by foot perspiration)
Homotosis (lack of nice furniture)
Acidosis (upset stomach)
Sneaker Smell
Accelerator Toe
Office Hips
Vacation Knees
Ashtray Breath
Coalitosis (use of coal, instead of oil, heat)
Underarm Offense
--New 'diseases' created by 1920s advertising,
in Peter Jennings and Todd Brewster _The Century_, p. 112 [1998].

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In school, I always wanted to write '5/5/55' at the top of my paper. The
entire spring, I looked forward to May 5, 1955, and writing '5/5/55.' But
I never did. I got sick and missed school that day. I actually tried to hide
the fact that I was sick. I got dressed, thinking 5/5/55 the whole time.
I came down to have breakfast, and knew I had a fever. I even started
shaking at the table the way you do when your temperature gets high. I
tried to make as if I was just cold, but my grandmother immediately knew
something was wrong. I saw the hand reaching out to feel my forehead.
I tried to block her, but I couldn't. Then I heard the words, those terrible
words: 'Oh my God, he's burning up.' She looked at my mother. 'He's
burning up.'

I could see 5/5/55 slipping away. I put my own hand to my forehead and
said, 'No, your hands are cold,' but I could see my mother wasn't buying
it.

She stared at me across the table. 'His eyes look glassy.'

That's when you know you're in trouble, when they talk about you in
the third person. 'His eyes.' Goodbye 5/5/55.

--Barry Levinson (b. 1942)
American screenwriter and film director.
_Sixty-Six_, ch. 1 [2003]

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The ideal way to get rid of any infectious
disease would be to shoot instantly every
person who comes down with it.
--H.L. (Henry Louis) Mencken (1880—1956)
American journalist and literary critic.
"The American Mercury", vol. 4 [1925]

When Paris sneezes, the rest of Europe catches a cold.
--Klemens Wenzel von Metternich (1773—1859)
Austrian politician and statesman.
1830 remark quoted in "Journal of Politics" [August 1949].

Meet the disorder in its outset. Medicine may
be too late, when the disease has gained ground
through delay.
--Ovid [Publius Ovidius Naso] (43 B.C.—18 A.D.)
Roman poet.
In _A New Dictionary of Quotations from the Greek, Latin, and
Modern Languages_, p. 371 [1869, J. B. Lippincott & Co.].

The nearer any disease approaches to a crisis, the nearer
it is to a cure. Danger and deliverance make their advances
together; it is only in the last push that one or the other
takes the lead.
--Thomas Paine (1737—1809)
English-American writer and political pamphleteer.
12 September 1777 issue of "The American Crisis" (pamphlets pub. 1776-83).

You remember what people say when they are sick?
What do they say? That after all, nothing is pleasanter
than health. But then they never knew this to be the
greatest of pleasures until they were ill.
--Plato (427?—347 B.C.)
Greek philosopher.
_The Republic_ [c. 380 B.C.], bk. IX

If you are surprised at the number
of our maladies, count our cooks.
--Lucius Annaeus Seneca (4 B.C.— 65 A.D.)
Roman philosopher and poet.
Attributed in Dora Leigh _Noble Words and Noble Deeds_, p. 239 [1877].

Illness is the night-side of life, a more onerous
citizenship. Everyone who is born holds dual
citizenship, in the kingdom of the well and in
the kingdom of the sick.
--Susan Sontag [Susan Rosenblatt] (1933—2004)
American essayist, critic, and novelist.
In "New York Review of Books" [26 January 1978].

This day let us not be told
That you are sick, and I grown old;
Nor think on our approaching ills,
And talk of spectacles and pills.
--Jonathan Swift (1667—1745)
Anglo-Irish poet and satirist.
"Stella's Birthday March 13, 1726"

The biggest disease today is not leprosy or tuberculosis,
but rather the feeling of being unwanted, uncared for,
and deserted by everybody.
--Mother Teresa (1910—1997)
Roman Catholic nun and missionary.
Quoted in _Observer_ [3 October 1971].

But however secure and well-regulated civilized life
may become, bacteria, Protozoa, viruses, infected
fleas, lice, ticks, mosquitoes, and bedbugs will
always lurk in the shadows ready to pounce when
neglect, poverty, famine, or war lets down the
defenses.
--Hans Zinsser (1878—1940)
American bacteriologist.
_Rats, Lice and History_, ch. 13 [1934]

-----

etiolate (verb) ['ee-tee-κ-leyt]
1. To bleach or make pale, especially by depriving of light.
2. To make feeble or sickly.

lurid (adj.) ['lu-rid]
1. Sickly, deathly, pallid, as a skin lurid from a disease.
2. Bright, red, as a lurid flash of lightning.
3. Gruesome and sensationalistic, ghastly, grisly.

paroxysm [PAIR-uhk-siz-uhm], noun:
1. (Medicine) A sudden attack, intensification, or recurrence of a disease.
2. Any sudden and violent emotion or action; an outburst; a fit.

pestiferous [pes-TIF-uh-ruhs], adjective:
1. Bearing or bringing disease.
2. Infected with or contaminated by a pestilential disease.
3. Morally evil or dangerous to society; pernicious.
4. Bothersome; troublesome; annoying.

sallow [SAL-oh], adjective:
Having a sickly, yellowish color.

valetudinarian [val-uh-too-din-AIR-ee-un; -tyoo-], noun:
A weak or sickly person, especially one morbidly concerned
with his or her health.
adjective:
1. Sickly; weak; infirm.
2. Morbidly concerned with one's health.




SILENCE

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see: "PEACE"
see: "QUIET"
see: "SOLITUDE"
see: "TACT"
see: "THOUGHT"
see: "INDIFFERENCE" for other related links


Silence never shows itself to so great an advantage, as
when it is made the reply to calumny and defamation,
provided that we give no just occasion for them.
--Joseph Addison (1672—1719)
English essayist, poet, and dramatist.
"Tatler" no. 133 [13 February 1709]

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When we find ourselves in company with quarrelsome, eccentric individuals,
people who openly and unblushingly say the most shocking things, difficult
to put up with, we should take refuge in silence, and the wisest plan is not
to reply to people whose behavior is so preposterous.

Those who insult us and treat us contumeliously are anxious for a spiteful and
sarcastic reply: the silence we then affect disheartens them, and they cannot
avoid showing their vexation; they do all they can to provoke us and to elicit
a reply, but the best way to baffle them is to say nothing, refuse to argue with
them, and to leave them to chew the cud of their hasty anger.

--St. Ambrose (c. 339—397)
French-born bishop of Milan.
_De officiis ministrorum_, ch. 5, quoted in Charles Kenny
_Half-Hours with the Saints and Servants of God_ [1882]

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Truth is not only violated by falsehood; it may be outraged by silence.
--attributed to Henri Frιdιrick Amiel (1821—1881)
Swiss critic.

There is no greater agony than bearing
an untold story inside you.
--attributed to Maya Angelou (b. 1928)
American author and poet.

During a quarrel, to have said too little
may be mended; to have said too much,
not always.
--Minna Thomas Antrim (1861—1950)
American writer and epigrammist.
_Sweethearts and Beaux_ [1905]

Silence is the virtue of a fool.
--Francis Bacon (1561—1626)
English philosopher and essayist.
_The Advancement of Learning_ [1605], bk. VI, xxxi (Wikiquote)

We live in an age when silence is not only criminal
but suicidal. If they take you in the morning, they
will be coming back for us that night.
--James Baldwin (1924—1987)
American author and playwright.
"Open Letter to My Sister, Miss Angela Davis"
_New York Review of Books_ [7 January 1971].

I don't know how I would have behaved in Germany under
the Nazis if I had been a German. I don't know — I can't
make guarantees there. I don't think any of us can, as to our
courage and so on. I don't pretend to know. But there are
situations in our own society where the dangers are not so
great and yet people are still bystanders. And these are the
people who worry me.
--Helen Bamber (b. 1926)
English psychotherapist.
[1999 interview with Sunny Delaney.]

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Even a fool, when he holdeth his peace, is
counted wise: and he that shutteth his lips
is esteemed a man of understanding.
--Bible
"Proverbs" 17:28

& see

Let a fool hold his tongue and he will pass for a sage.
--Publilius Syrus (85—43 B.C.)
Latin writer of mimes who was originally a slave.
_Maxims_ # 914

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Silence is one of the hardest arguments to refute.
--attributed to Josh Billings [Henry Wheeler Shaw] (1818—1885)
American humorist.

If with pleasure you are viewing,
Any work a man is doing,
If you like him or love him, tell him now.
Do not wait till life is over,
And he's underneath the clover,
For he cannot read his tombstone when he's dead.
--Berton Braley (1882—1966)
American poet.
"Do It Now" in _Best Loved Poems of the American People_ [1936].

It is tact that is golden, not silence.
--Samuel Butler (1835—1902)
English novelist, essayist, and critic.
_The Note-Books of Samuel Butler_, ed. Henry Festing Jones [1907]

A dog barks when his master is attacked. I would
be a coward if I saw that God's truth is attacked
and yet would remain silent.
--John Calvin (1509—1564)
French Protestant theologian of the Reformation.
Letter to Queen of Navarre [28 April 1545], as quoted in
Philip Schaff _History of the Christian Church_, vol. VII [1890].

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[Alice] came upon a large flower-bed, with a border
of daisies, and a willow-tree growing in the middle.

"O Tiger-Lily!" said Alice, addressing herself to
one that was waving gracefully about in the wind,
"I wish you could talk!"

"We can talk!" said the Tiger-Lily, "when there's
anybody worth talking to."

--Lewis Carroll [Charles Lutwidge Dodgson] (1832—1898)
English writer and logician.
_Through The Looking Glass_ [1872], "The Garden of Live Flowers"

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Mum's the word.
--Miguel de Cervantes (1547—1616)
Spanish novelist.
_Don Quixote de la Mancha_, pt. 2, bk. 3, ch. 44 [1615]

Be wiser than other people, if you can; but do not tell them so.
--Lord Chesterfield [Philip Dormer Stanhope] (1694—1773)
British writer and politician.
Letter to his son [19 November 1745].

Silence is the unbearable repartee.
--G.K. (Gilbert Keith) Chesterton (1874—1936)
English essayist, novelist, and poet.
_Charles Dickens: A Critical Study_ [1906]

Too often the strong, silent man is silent only because he does
not know what to say, and is reputed strong only because he
has remained silent.
--Winston Churchill (1874—1965)
British Conservative statesman and Prime Minister [1940-45, 1951-55].
Quoted in Robert Rhodes James (ed.) _Winston S. Churchill:
His Complete Speeches 1897—1963_ [1974, 8 vol.]

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A man who knows the world will not only make the most
of everything he does know, but of many things he does
not know; and will gain more credit by his adroit mode
of hiding his ignorance, than the pedant by his awkward
attempt to exhibit his erudition.
--C.C. Colton (1780—1832)
English clergyman and writer.
_Lacon: or, Many Things in Few Words_, # CXLVII [1820]


When you have nothing to say, say nothing; a weak
defense strengthens your opponent, and silence is
less injurious than a bad reply.
--C.C. Colton (1780—1832)
English clergyman and writer.
_Lacon: or, Many Things in Few Words_, CLXXXIII [1821 ed.]


Silence is foolish if we are wise, but wise if we are foolish.
--attributed to C.C. Colton (1780—1832)
English clergyman and writer.

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How often could things be remedied by
a word. How often is it left unspoken.
--Norman Douglas (1868—1952)
Austrian-born British novelist and essayist.
_An Almanac_ [1945]

Go placidly amid the noise and the haste, and
remember what peace there may be in silence.
As far as possible without surrender be on good
terms with all persons. Speak your truth quietly
and clearly; and listen to others, even the dull
and ignorant; they too have their story. Avoid
loud and aggressive persons, they are vexations
to the spirit.
--Max Ehrmann (1872—1945)
American lawyer.
"Desiderata" [1927]

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Blessed is the man who, having nothing to say,
abstains from giving us wordy evidence of the
fact.
--George Eliot [Mary Ann Evans] (1819—1880)
English novelist.
_Impressions of Theophrastus Such_ [1879] "A Man Surprised at his Own Originality"


I like not only to be loved, but to be told that
I am loved. [...] The realm of silence is large
enough beyond the grave.
--George Eliot [Mary Ann Evans] (1819—1880)
English novelist.
Letter to Mrs. Burne-Jones, as quoted by JW Cross (her husband) in
_George Eliot's Life as Related in Her Letters and Journals_ [3 vol. 1885].

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Silence is not always a Sign of Wisdom,
but Babbling is ever a Mark of Folly.
--Benjamin Franklin (1706—1790)
American politician, inventor, and scientist.
_Poor Richard's Quotations_ [1775]

Silence becomes cowardice when occasion demands
speaking out the whole truth and acting accordingly.
--Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869—1948)
Indian statesman and leader of the nationalistic
movement against British rule.
In "Harijan" [7 April 1946].

The best answer to anger is silence.
--German Proverb

I have learned silence from the talkative, toleration from
the intolerant, and kindness from the unkind; yet strange,
I am ungrateful to these teachers.
--Kahlil Gibran (1883—1931)
Lebanese poet.
_Sand and Foam_ [1926]

Far from the madding crowd's ignoble strife.
--Thomas Gray (1716—1771)
English poet.
"Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard" [1751]

Throughout history, it has been the inaction
of those who could have acted, the indifference
of those who should have known better, the
silence of the voice of justice when it mattered
most, that has made it possible for evil to
triumph.
--Haile Selassie I [Tafari Makonnen] (1892—1975)
Emperor of Ethiopia [1930-74].
In an address to the General Assembly, United Nations, N.Y.C..

That man's silence is wonderful to listen to.
--Thomas Hardy (1840—1928)
English novelist and poet.
_Under the Greenwood Tree _ [1872], ch. V "Returning Homeward"

Tar-baby ain't sayin' nuthin', en Brer Fox, he lay low.
--Joel Chandler Harris (1848—1908)
American writer.
_Uncle Remus and His Legends of the Old Plantation_ [1881]
"The Wonderful Tar-Baby Story"

Ko kurum magana ce. Even silence speaks.
--Hausa proverb, W Africa.

The silence of a friend commonly amounts to
treachery. His not daring to say anything in
our behalf implies a tacit censure.
--William Hazlitt (1778—1830)
English essayist.
_Characteristics in the Manner of Rochefoucault's Maxims_, XV [1823]

Fools live to regret their words,
wise men to regret their silence.
--attributed to Will Henry

Sometimes I feel that every word spoken and
every gesture made merely serve to exacerbate
misunderstandings. Then what I would really
like is to escape into a great silence and
impose that silence on everyone else.
--Etty Hillesum (1919—1943)
Dutch Jew who lived in Amsterdam and died in Auschwitz.
_An Interrupted Life the Diaries, 1941-1943_ [1983].

He asked himself where he stood, and he
questioned the 'decision' he had arrived
at. He confessed to himself that what he
had resolved upon — to let things take
their course, to let God have his way —
was quite simply outrageous. To acquiesce
in this blunder on the part of destiny and
men, to make no effort to prevent it, to
endorse it by his silence, in short, to do
nothing, was in fact to do everything: it
was to descend to the most abject depths
of criminal hypocrisy and cowardice.
--Victor Hugo (1802—1885)
French poet, dramatist, and novelist.
_Les Mise'rables_ [1862] Part One: Fantine, Book VII, "The Champmathieu
Affair", Ch. III "A tempest in a human skull", Norman Denny, trans. [1976].

I am very fond of the company of ladies. I like their beauty, I
like their delicacy, I like their vivacity, and I like their silence.
--Samuel Johnson (1709—1784)
English poet, critic, and lexicographer.
Told by William Seward to Isaac Reed for publication
in _The European Magazine_ [pub. 1782—1826].

One of the hardest things in life is having
words in your heart that you can't utter.
--James Earl Jones (b. 1931)
American stage and screen actor.
_Voices and Silences_, ch. 24 "Journal" [1993]

Calumnies are best answered with silence.
--Ben Jonson (c.1573—1637)
English dramatist and poet.
_The Alchemist_, II, i [1610]

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He who passively accepts evil is as much
involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate
it. He who accepts evil without protesting
against it is really cooperating with it.
--Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929—1968)
American civil rights leader.
_Stride Toward Freedom_ [1958]


In the end, we will remember not the words
of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.
--attributed to Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929—1968)
American civil rights leader.

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People who make no noise are dangerous.
--Jean de La Fontaine (1621—1695)
French poet.
_Fables_ bk. 8 [1678-79], fable 23

Silence is the best tactic for him who distrusts himself.
--Franηois de La Rochefoucauld (1613—1680)
French classical author.
_Maxims_, # 79 [1665]

Be still when you have nothing to say; when genuine
passion moves you, say what you've got to say, and
say it hot.
--D.H. (David Herbert) Lawrence (1885—1930)
English novelist and poet.
_Studies In Classic American Literature_, ch. II [1923]

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I am very little inclined on any occasion to
say anything unless I hope to produce some
good by it.
--Abraham Lincoln (1809—1865)
American Republican statesman, President [1861-65].
Speech in Washington, D.C., [6 August 1862].


Better to remain silent and be thought a fool
than to speak out and remove all doubt.
--attributed to Abraham Lincoln (1809—1865)
American Republican statesman, President [1861-65].
(Also attr. to Confucius, Mark Twain, and George Eliot.)

& note:

Even a fool, when he holdeth his peace, is counted
wise: and he that shutteth his lips is esteemed a man
of understanding
--Bible
"Proverbs" 17:28

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Silence is a great peacemaker.
--Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807—1882)
American poet.
Quoted in Samuel Longfellow _Life of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow_ [1886].

They are slaves who fear to speak
For the fallen and the weak.
--James Russell Lowell (1819—1891)
American poet, critic, essayist, and diplomat.
"Stanzas on Freedom" [1843]

Malice, scorned, puts out itself; but, argued,
gives a kind of credit to a false accusation.
--Philip Massinger (1583—1640)
English Jacobean and Caroline playwright.
_The Maid of Honour_, III, iii [1621?]

Sticks and stones are hard on bones.
Aimed with angry art,
Words can sting like anything.
But silence breaks the heart.
--Phyllis McGinley (1905—1978)
American poet and author.
"Ballade of Lost Objects" in _The Love Letters of Phyllis McGinley_ [1954].

Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends
than that good men should look on and do nothing.
--John Stuart Mill (1806—1873)
English philosopher and social reformer.
"On Education" [1867]

The best apology against false accusers is silence and
sufferance, and honest deeds set against dishonest
words.
--John Milton (1608—1674)
English poet.
_An Apology for Smectymnuus_ [1642]

Ten people who speak make more noise
than ten thousand that are silent.
--Napoleon I (1769—1821)
Emperor of France [1804-15].
_A Manuscript Found In The Portfolio Of Las Casas: Containing Maxims
And Observations Of Napoleon_ [Alexander Black, London 1820]

We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason if we
dig deep in our history and doctrine and remember that we
are not descended from fearful men, not from men who
feared to write, to speak, to associate and to defend causes
which were, for the moment, unpopular. We can deny our
heritage and our history, but we cannot escape responsibility
for the result. There is no way for a citizen of the Republic
to abdicate his responsibility.
--Edward R. Murrow [Egbert Roscoe Murrow] (1908—1965)
American broadcaster and journalist.
From the March 9, 1954 "See It Now" television broadcast on Senator Joe McCarthy.

When Hitler attacked the Jews I was not a Jew,
therefore, I was not concerned. And when Hitler
attacked the Catholics, I was not a Catholic, and
therefore, I was not concerned. And when Hitler
attacked the unions and the industrialists, I was
not a member of the unions and I was not
concerned. Then, Hitler attacked me and the
Protestant church — and there was nobody left
to be concerned.
--Martin Niemφller (1892—1984)
German theologian.
In "Congressional Record" [14 October 1968, p. 31636].

You wish people to believe good of you? Don't speak.
--Blaise Pascal (1623—1662)
French mathematician, physicist, and moralist.
Quoted in W.F. Trotter (trans.) "Blaise Pascal, Thoughts",
one of the _Harvard Classics_ series [1910].

He who does not bellow the truth when he knows
the truth makes himself the accomplice of liars
and forgers.
--Charles Pιguy (1873—1914)
French poet and essayist.
_Basic Verities_ [1943], "Lettre du Provincial" [21 December 1899]

I have often regretted my speech, never my silence.
--Publilius Syrus (85—43 B.C.)
Latin writer of mimes who was originally a slave.
_Maxims_ # 1070

Be silent, or say something better than silence.
--Pythagoras (582—486 B.C.)
Ionian mathematician and philosopher.
Attributed by William Makepeace Thayer in _Ethics of Success_ [1893].

It is more noble by silence to avoid an
injury than by argument to overcome it.
--Francis Quarles (1592—1644)
English poet.
_Enchiridion_ [1640]
Also attributed to Francis Beaumont (c. 1584—1616).

When facing society, the man most concerned, the
man who is to do the most and contribute the most,
has the least to say. It's taken for granted that he has
no voice and the reasons he could offer are rejected
in advance as prejudiced — since no speech is ever
considered, but only the speaker. It's so much easier
to pass judgement on a man than an idea. Though
how in hell one passes judgement on a man without
considering the content of his brain is more than
I'll ever understand.
--Ayn Rand (1905—1982)
Russian-born American writer.
_The Fountainhead_ [1943]

Answer them [critics] with silence and indifference. It
works better, I assure you, than anger and argument.
--attributed to Gioacchino Rossini (1792—1868)
Italian composer.

The tender word forgotten,
The letter you did not write,
The flower you might have sent, dear,
Are your haunting ghosts tonight.
--Margaret Elizabeth Sangster (1838—1912)
American author, poet, and magazine editor.
"Left Undone" pub. in _Poetic Pearls_ [1885], ed. by Richard S. Rhodes.

Great souls suffer in silence.
--Friedrich von Schiller (1759—1805)
German poet, historian, and dramatist.
_Don Carlos_, I. 4. 52 [c. 1783-87]

My doctrine is this, that if we see cruelty or wrong
that we have the power to stop, and do nothing, we
make ourselves sharers in the guilt.
--Anna Sewell (1820—1878)
English author.
_Black Beauty_, ch. 3 [1877]
[This was her only book, for which she was paid £20.]

Silence is the perfectest herald of joy:
I were but little happy, if I could say how much.
--William Shakespeare (1564—1616)
English dramatist.
_Much Ado About Nothing_, II, i [1598-99]

Silence is the most perfect expression of scorn.
--George Bernard Shaw (1856—1950)
Irish comic dramatist, literary critic, Socialist propagandist, and winner
of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1925 [he didn't accept it.]
_Back to Methuselah_ [1921]

Shallow brooks murmur most, deep silent slide away.
--Sir Philip Sidney (1554—1586)
English soldier, poet, and courtier.
"Arcadia" [1581]

People talking without speaking,
People hearing without listening,
People writing songs that voices never share
And no one dares disturb the sound of silence.
--Paul Simon (b. 1941)
American singer and songwriter.
_The Sound of Silence_ (song, 1965) on the
album Sounds of Silence (Simon and Garfunkel [1966].

Silence gives the proper grace to women.
--Sophocles (496?—406 B.C.)
Greek dramatist.
_Ajax_ l. 293

Silent gratitude isn't much use to anyone.
--Gladys Browyn Stern (1890—1973)
English author and playwright.
Attributed in _Proceedings, International Engineering Management Conference_ [1990].

-

The cruelest lies are often told in silence.
--Robert Louis Stevenson (1850—1894)
Scottish essayist, poet, and novelist.
_Virginibus Puerisque_, ch. 4 [1881]


The correction of silence is what kills; when you
know you have transgressed, and your friend says
nothing and avoids your eye.
--Robert Louis Stevenson (1850—1894)
Scottish essayist, poet, and novelist.
_Talk and Talkers_ [1882]

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The bitterest tears shed over graves are for
words left unsaid and deeds left undone.
--Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811—1896)
American writer and philanthropist.
[Sister of Henry Ward Beecher, daughter of Lyman Beecher.]
_Little Foxes_ [1865]

Neglected, calumny soon expires; show that you
are hurt, and you give it the appearance of truth.
--Tacitus [or Publius Cornelius Tacitus or Gaius Cornelius Tacitus] (c. 55—c. 117)
Roman orator, lawyer, senator, and historian.
_The Annals_ [109]

Who can protest and does not, is an accomplice in the act.
--Talmud (A.D.1st—6th cent.)
Rabbinical writings.

In human intercourse the tragedy begins, not when
there is misunderstanding about words, but when
silence is not understood.
--Henry David Thoreau (1817—1862)
American essayist, poet, and practical philosopher.
_A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers_, p. 294 [1868 ed.]

A good word is an easy obligation, but not to speak
ill, requires only our silence, which costs us nothing.
--John Tillotson (1630—1694)
Archbishop of Canterbury (1691-1694).
Sermon [25 February 1693].

Don't talk unless you can improve the silence.
--Vermont proverb

To persevere in one's duty and be
silent is the best answer to calumny.
--George Washington (1732—1799)
American general and commander-in-chief of the colonial armies in the American
Revolution [1775—1783] and first president of the United States [1789-97].
Letter to Gov. William Livingston [7 December 1779].

-

There may be times when we are powerless
to prevent injustice, but there must never
be a time when we fail to protest.
--Eliezer [Elie] Wiesel (b. 1928)
Romanian Jew and Holocaust survivor. Winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986.
"Hope, Despair, and Memory" Nobel Peace Prize
acceptance address, Oslo, Norway [11 December 1986].


Take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim.
Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.
--Eliezer [Elie] Wiesel (b. 1928)
Romanian Jew and Holocaust survivor.
"Hope, Despair, and Memory" Nobel Peace Prize
acceptance address, Oslo, Norway [11 December 1986].

-

To sin by silence, when we should protest,
Makes cowards out of men.
--Ella Wheeler Wilcox (1850—1919)
American author and poet.
"Protest", l. 1 [1914]

The right to silence is more than the mere right to refuse to answer
incriminating questions. It is the respect which society pays to the
inviolability of each man's soul in an era when hypnotism, narco-
analysis, truth serums, lie detectors and other scientific devices
are being used to force the revelation of truths by persons who
desire to keep them secret. [...] It is a last bastion against an ever
more omnipotent government. It is the final shield against invasion
of the soul. Protection from this kind of assault is the sine qua non
of the essential dignity of man.
--Edward Bennett Williams (1920—1988)
American lawyer.
_One Man's Freedom_, ch. 8 [1962]

What can be said at all can be said clearly;
and whereof one cannot speak thereof one
must be silent.
--Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889—1951)
Austrian philosopher.
_Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus_ [1922]

Things said or done long years ago,
Or things I did not do or say
But thought that I might say or do,
Weigh me down, and not a day
But something is recalled,
My conscience or my vanity appalled.
--William Butler Yeats (1865—1939)
Irish poet and dramatist who received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1923.
"Vacillation" in _The Winding Stair and Other Poems_ [1933].

-

The hottest places in hell are reserved for
those who in times of great moral crises
maintain their neutrality.
--anon.
Credited to Dante by JFK in a 1959 speech, these
are not Dante's words according to Ralph Keyes
in _The Quote Verifier_. Fred R. Shapiro in _The
Yale Book of Quotations_ agrees, and adds that
Arthur M. Schlesinger "states in _A Thousand Days_
that Kennedy wrote" a similar passage "and attributed
the words to Dante." Thus, the origin remains unclear.

Use what talents you possess: the woods would be very
silent if no birds sang there except those that sang best.
--anon., found in _The Ladies Repository: A Monthly Periodical,
Devoted to Literature, Arts, and Religion_ [September 1874], as
quoted in Jeffrey S. Cramer (ed.) _The Quotable Thoreau_ [2011].

When you're in it up to your ears,
it's best to keep your mouth shut.
--anon.

-----

ineffable
1. Incapable of being expressed in words; unspeakable;
unutterable; indescribable.
2. Not to be uttered; taboo.

reticent [RET-ih-suhnt], adjective:
1. Inclined to keep silent; reserved; uncommunicative.
2. Restrained or reserved in style.
3. Reluctant; unwilling.

taciturn [TAS-uh-turn], adjective:
Habitually silent; not inclined to talk.


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