Richard Powers Quotes

I've begun to realize that you can listen to silence and learn from it. It has a quality and a dimension all its own.

Wait without thought, for you are not ready for thought.

I aspire only to silence.

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

Listen to the sound of silence.

Silence is the most powerful state.

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

My hobby is silence.

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

When you don't know what to do, do nothing. Get quiet so you can hear the still, small voice.

It's a transformative experience to simply pause instead of immediately fill up the space. By waiting, we begin to connect with fundamental restlessness as well as fundamental spaciousness. -Pema Chodron, from "When Things Fall Apart

There are things that can only happen through you when you are still. Silence is often the most important work you can do.

Above anything, welcome silence, for it brings fruits that no tongue can speak of, neither can it be explained.

When I am liberated by silence, when I am no longer involved in the measurement of life, but in the living of it, I can discover a form of prayer in which there is effectively no distraction. My whole life becomes a prayer. My whole silence is full of prayer. The world of silence in which I am immersed contributes to my prayer.

Silence is essential. We need silence just as much as we need air, just as much as plants need light. If our minds are crowded with words and thoughts, there is no space for us.

You see more sitting still than chasing after.

To listen to the silence, wherever you are, is an easy and direct way of becoming present.

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.

If there were a little more silence, if we all kept quiet...maybe we could understand something.

It wasn't a dance, but the complete absence of noise and movement, the silence, that brought me in contact with myself.

Who can wait in stillness while the mud settles?

Now I must wait and be still and say nothing I don't know, nothing I haven't lived over and over, and that's everything.

Perhaps it is possible to discover more in silence than in speech. Or perhaps it is only that those who are silent among us learn to listen.

In Silence there is eloquence. Stop weaving and see how the pattern improves.