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Showing posts from June, 2008

The Eloquent Sound of Silence by Iyer

"All profound things and emotions of things are preceded and attended by Silence." "We have to earn silence, then, to work for it: to make it not an absence but a presence; not emptiness but repletion." "In silence, we often say, we can hear ourselves think; but what is truer to say is that in silence we can hear ourselves not think, and so sink below ourselves into a place far deeper than mere thought allows." "Silence is responsiveness." "A moment of silence is the highest honor we can pay someone; it is the point at which the mind stops and something else takes over (words run out when feelings rush in)." "Silence, like all the best things, is best appreciated in its absence." "Words, words, words" commit us to positions we do not really hold, the imperatives of a chatter; babble with strangers; with intimates we can be silent. "In love, we are speechless, in awe, we say, words fail us."