Silence Quotes - page 54
Except for cases of pathological incapacity, one can and must communicate, and thereby contribute in a useful and easy way to the peace of others and oneself, because silence, the absence of signals, is itself a signal, but an ambiguous one, and ambiguity generates anxiety and suspicion. To say that it is impossible to communicate is false; one always can.
Primo Levi
To the degree that a man possesses a vivid ideal of the good life, submerges himself in the sea of human misery and endeavors to alleviate suffering, kindles imagination in hours of silence and by visions of beauty, and follows the noblest personality into the presence of a loving, suffering Father-to the extent that he lives meaningfully, he will be convinced of sin and cry aloud for deliverance.
Kirby Page
A modern factory reaches perhaps almost the limit of horror. Everybody in it is constantly harassed and kept on edge by the interference of extraneous wills while the soul is left in cold desolate misery. What man needs is silence and warmth; what he is given is an icy pandemonium. Physical labor may be painful, but it is not degrading as such. It is not art; it is not science; it is something else, possessing an exactly equal value with art and science, for it provides an equal opportunity to reach the impersonal stage of attention.
Simone Weil
...Copernicus was condemned for suggesting that the sun... was the center of our universe... Giordano Bruno was persecuted, and... burned at the stake for arguing that space extended beyond our solar system.... William Harvey was condemned... for suggesting that the heart was the center of the body's circulatory system... Each ultimately was proven to be correct.... Today U. S. Senators Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) and Jay Rockefeller (D-W. Va.) are engaging in persecution of their own, attempting to silence dissenting voices.
David A. Ridenour
