Lord Acton Quotes

There is a time to be quiet and a time to talk.

Silence does not always mark wisdom.

Speech is better than silence; silence is better than speech.

If you are not able to be silent, you will not be able to speak well.

The communication is in the work and words are no substitute for this.

Speech is human, silence is divine, yet also brutish and dead: therefore we must learn both arts.

The right word may be effective, but no word was ever as effective as a rightly timed pause.

She had lost the art of conversation but not, unfortunately, the power of speech.

A story is told as much by silence as by speech.

Silence is the last thing the world will ever hear from me.

The key to acting has much more to do with listening than with talking.

Happy is the hearing man; unhappy the speaking man.

If a person never contradicts himself, it must be that he says nothing.

Words mean more than what is set down on paper. It takes the human voice to infuse them with deeper meaning.

How I say it has as much of an impact on what people think of me as what I say.

Much speech is one thing, well-timed speech is another.

Well-timed silence hath more eloquence than speech.

Silence may be as variously shaded as speech.

It’s not what you say; it’s what people hear.

I'm a talker.

Books will speak plain when counselors blanch.

To the questioning glance of love, as it flashes out and then conceals itself, speech has no reply; the smile, the kiss, the sigh answer.

The written word has taught me to listen to the human voice, much as the great unchanging statues have taught me to appreciate bodily motions.

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