Kahlil Gibran on Silence, Solitude, and the Courage to Know Yourself
All of our great contemplative traditions advocate the necessity for silence in an individual life: first, for gaining a sense of discernment amid the noise and haste, second, as a basic building block of individual happiness, and third, to let this other all-seeing identity come to life and find its voice inside us.
David Whyte • The Three Marriages: Reimagining Work, Self and Relationship
Silence isn’t an endgame. It’s a catalyst, an opportunity to discover truer things about the world outside or inside your head. —DIANE COOK
Rob Walker • The Art of Noticing: 131 Ways to Spark Creativity, Find Inspiration, and Discover Joy in the Everyday
Only silence enables us to say something unheard of. The compulsion of communication, by contrast, leads to the reproduction of the same, to conformism:
So it’s not a problem of getting people to express themselves but of providing little gaps of solitude and silence in which they might eventually find something to say. Repressive forces don’t
Solitude can be a profound teacher. It can teach us how to hold ourselves—how to affirm ourselves and listen. How much is the sound of your own voice worth?
Cole Arthur Riley • This Here Flesh: Spirituality, Liberation, and the Stories That Make Us
