Never slap a man who's chewing tobacco. Never kick a cow chip on a hot day. Never miss a good chance to shut up.

The sheer act of listening speaks volumes that even a great speech can't communicate.

Silence is a source of great strength.

I wash my hands of those who imagine chattering to be knowledge, silence to be ignorance, and affection to be art.

Walk into a library anywhere in the world and you'll notice the same thing: It's quiet and calm. Everyone knows how to behave in a library. In fact, few things transcend cultures like library behavior. It's a place where people go to read, think, study, focus, and work. And the hushed, respectful environment reflects that. Isn't that what an office should be?

So take a step toward calm, and relieve people from needing to broadcast their whereabouts and status. Everyone's status should be implicit: I'm trying to do my job, please respect my time and attention.

And for a long while they stood side by side without speaking, each seeing the other in every line of the landscape.

Don't you know how, in talking a foreign language, even fluently, one says half the time not what one wants to but what one can?

Some people talk in their sleep. Lecturers talk while other people sleep.

If you can see silence as the ground of all words and the birth of all words, then you will find that when you speak, your words will be more well-chosen and calm. Francis

It is as important to cultivate your silence power as your word power.

Knowledge is power only as long as you keep your mouth shut.