Bill McKibben Quotes

Don't underestimate the value of doing nothing, of just going along, listening to all the thing you can't hear, and not bothering.

The word must be heard in silence; there must be darkness to see the stars.

As before, there is a great silence, with no end in sight. The writer surrenders, listening.

I named this place Listening Point because only when one comes to listen, only when one is aware and still, can things be seen and heard. Everyone has a listening point somewhere. It does not have to be in the north or close to the wilderness, but someplace of quiet where the universe can be contemplated with awe.

Only keep still, wait, and hear, and the world will open.

The beginning of prayer is silence.

It isn't necessary that you leave home. Sit at your desk and listen. Don't even listen, just wait. Don't wait, be still and alone. The whole world will offer itself to you.

A man prayed, and at first he thought that prayer was talking. But he became more and more quiet until in the end he realized prayer is listening.

At a certain point, you say to the woods, to the sea, to the mountains, the world, Now I am ready. Now I will stop and be wholly attentive. You empty yourself and wait, listening.

Silence is the sleep that nourishes wisdom.

I think I'm a spiritual person. I don't really go to church often when services are on, but I like going in when they are empty and quiet, and just sitting there and thinking for a little while.

There is a lot of silence in me, and I feel that silence is often better than spoken words.

Silence is the pause in me when I am near to God.

All of our great traditions, religious, contemplative and artistic, say that you must a learn how to be alone - and have a relationship with silence. It is difficult, but it can start with just the tiniest quiet moment.

Silence is the most powerful state.

There is so much noise in the world! May we learn to be silent in our hearts and before God.

I said to my soul, be still and wait without hope, for hope would be hope for the wrong thing; wait without love, for love would be love of the wrong thing; there is yet faith, but the faith and the love are all in the waiting. Wait without thought, for you are not ready for thought: So the darkness shall be the light, and the stillness the dancing.

Christmas celebrations are often full of sound. It would be good for us to make room for silence, to hear the voice of Love.

There are times when we stop, we sit still. We listen and breezes from a whole other world begin to whisper.

Advent is a time of waiting, of expectation, of silence. Waiting for our Lord to be born. A pregnant woman is so happy, so content. She lives in such a garment of silence, and it is as though she were listening to hear the stir of life within her. One always hears that stirring compared to the rustling of a bird in the hand. But the intentness which which one awaits such stirring is like nothing so much as a blanket of silence.

Silence gives us a new outlook on everything. We need silence to be able to touch souls. The essential thing is not what we say but what God says to us and through us.

We just sat there quiet for a long time, which was fine, and I was thinking about way back in the very beginning in the Literal Heart of Jesus.

The first requirement for prayer is silence. People of prayer are people of silence.

Coming before God in quietness & waiting upon Him in silence often can accomplish more than days of feverish activity.

Ten minutes praying is better than a year's murmuring.