Quieter Quotes & Sayings

Knowledge can last, principles can last, habits can last; but feelings come and go ... But, of course, ceasing to be "in love" need not mean ceasing to love. Love in this second sense - love as distinct from "being in love" - is not merely a feeling. It is a deep unity, maintained by the will and deliberately strengthened by habit; reinforced by (in Christian marriage) the grace which both partners ask, and receive, from God ... "Being in love" first moved them to promise fidelity: this quieter love enables them to keep the promise. It is on this love that the engine of marriage is run: being in love was the explosion that started it. — C.S. Lewis

Silas knew words could have power behind them. Usually it was just a sort of bad luck. He also knew, very early on, that you could never tell when that bad luck would jump up to claim its due, so it was best to be careful. Quiet was safer. He wished his parents had been quieter when they were together. Who knew what might happen when you said something awful to someone else? It was hard to take some words back. Some words stuck and you couldn't shake them off. Silence was better than those kinds of words. Silas had learned that lesson the hard way. — Ari Berk

Things become quieter, but the cries do not cease. "What's up, Albert?" I ask. "A couple of columns over there got it in the neck." The cries continued. It is not men, they could not cry so terribly. "Wounded horses," says Kat. It's unendurable. It is the moaning of the world, it is the martyred creation, wild with anguish, filled with terror, and groaning. — Erich Maria Remarque

When friends and lovers die and your world gets quieter; that's when the silence comes closer; that's when next isn't the least bit theoretical or abstract. — Bruce Jackson

Yoga aims to bring about a situation where the mind is quieter and more effective. It's not only about relaxation, it's also about improving our energy. It's about making us more decisive and at the same time better able to judge a situation clearly. — Paul Harvey

They weren't interested in entertainment. They were tough. I learned one trick, which was to be quieter than they were until they had to look at you. It took a lot of agressiveness. — Judy Holliday

I will say that as I get older and calmer and quieter in my own self, the one quality in a woman that I find more and more attractive is kindness. A sense of adventure and humor is important too, but I truly find kindness and consideration for others to be the most attractive thing in anyone. — Colin Farrell

You see, most people play louder to get someone's attention, but getting quieter can stop a bull from charging. — Victor L. Wooten

I guess my favorite artists are The White Stripes or Tom Waits. The more theatrical the music is, the more I get into it. I also like the quieter folk music, that kind of old-school rockabilly or country. I'm not really picky when it comes to music, as long as it's honest. — Landon Liboiron

My mind kept thinking its harsh thinky thoughts, but I would distract myself from them gently and say, 'Those are not the truth, those are not trustworthy, those are for entertainment purposes only.' Eventually I had quieter thoughts. — Anne Lamott

I've heard from other artists that people are a little bit more reserved in Northern Europe, which comes across at concerts, where the audience may be quieter. So this means less hecklers, but maybe it also means that people may not be as open about how they felt. I'm not so sure this is especially true of Denmark, but it's what I've heard. — Agnes Obel

Hey Charlotte," Julianne yelled. "Hell must have frozen over!" And then in a quieter voice she added, "Charlotte was hoping it would."
"What?" Colton asked.
I sprinted the rest of the way to the door. As I rounded the corner I saw both Wesley and Colton in the entryway. Julianne stood in front of them transfixed, staring up at Colton with adoring eyes.
"Julianne, it's time for you to go to your room," I said. "Right now."
"Do you really know the devil?" she asked Colton. "Have you ever been to hell?"
"Sometimes I think I have," he answered, glaring at me. — Janette Rallison

Certainly it's very often true that women tend to be a bit quieter and more prepared to sit there and let the animal tell you things. — Jane Goodall

It is simply no good trying to keep any thrill: that is the very worst thing you can do. Let the thrill go - let it die away - go on through that period of death into the quieter interest and happiness that follow - and you will find you are living in a world of new thrills all the time. But if you decide to make thrills your regular diet and try to prolong them artificially, they will all get weaker and weaker, and fewer and fewer, and you will be a bored, disillusioned old man for the rest of your life. — C.S. Lewis

The quieter you become, the more you can hear. — Matthew Knisely

But to be honest, there is only so much battle a man can take. I think all of us crave a quieter life with a tender touch. (Sparhawk) — Sherrilyn Kenyon

Girls at war opt for a quieter cruelty than fistfights and drive-by shootings. Girls circumvent the corporeal and go straight for each other's souls. The bleeding is harder to stanch. — Jillian Lauren

Among the problems with shame was that it in fact did not make you shorter or quieter or less visible. You just felt like you were. — J.R. Ward

Perhaps when music has been shouting for so long, a quieter voice seems attractive. — Brian Eno

The untrained mind keeps up a running commentary, labelling everything, judging everything. Best to ignore that commentary. Don't argue or resist, just ignore. Deprived of attention and interest, this voice gets quieter and quieter and eventually just shuts up. — Plato

Personally, I like to hang out in the kitchen. That's my safe space in a party environment. I feel like it's a little quieter so you can actually have conversations with people, and anybody else who's also in the kitchen is probably someone I can have a decent conversation with. — Hannah Hart

--I'm looking forward to finally having some free time.

--That's what graves are for, aren't they? Why they dig 'em deep. Quieter down there. — James Marshall Smith

In addition to listening to the audience's laugh, you want to listen to their silence. Is it bored or interested silence? The silence is quieter and filled with energy when they're interested. You can hear a pin drop. When they're bored, you can always hear it. — Franklyn Ajaye

But the swamp don't mind. How could it? It's all just life, going over itself, returning and cycling and eating itself to grow. I mean, it's not that it's not Noisy here. Sure it is, there's no escaping Noise, not nowhere at all, but it's quieter than the town. The loud is a different kind of loud, because swamp loud is just curiosity, creachers figuring out who you are and if yer a threat. Whereas the town knows all about you already and wants to know more and wants to beat you with what it knows till how can you have any of yerself left at all? — Patrick Ness

It's somewhat of a contradiction, .. I guess the quieter the voice, the more necessary it is to push it. It's not going to leap out at you and scream. I also can't control how a book is marketed. To say the book marketing is aggressive, fine, I'm happy with that. Push the book. That doesn't mean that my personality or writing style changes. — David Bergen

Their hatred of the Germans was quieter and more deadly than I have ever seen before. — David M. Crook

I didn't tell him that I'd put his awful stories in boxes and stacked them on a shelf at the back of my mind. I could hear a quieter version of them still, from their dark place, through all the other business that occupied my brain, but I wouldn't unlid those boxes until I was ready to hear [his] stories again as they wanted to be heard. — Lauren Wolk

'Save the Date' feels like a quiet story about two sisters and the men in their lives, kind of reminiscent of the quieter rom-coms of the 1990s; it's very character-driven and not as wedding-focused. — Lizzy Caplan

I have seen slower people than I am and more deliberate ... and even quieter, and more listless, and lazier people than I am. But they were dead. — Mark Twain

It turned out missing someone never became easier, it just became quieter. You learned to live with the longing pain inside you. — Brittainy C. Cherry

The quieter we become, the more we can hear. — Rumi

Nowhere can anyone find a # quieter or more untroubled retreat than in his or her own # soul . We need to turn some things down and turn some things off. We need to be # quiet . — Jeffrey R. Holland

His mood changing again, Griffin sighed. Voice still agitated, but quieter than before, he told me, 'Yeah, we started going at it. I had both girls primed, panties on the floor, dying to jump me, but all I could think about was Anna.' Raising his hands in the air, his voice picked up strength and volume, 'I didn't want to fuck either of those girls because I'm in love with your fucking sister! Are you happy now, bitch! I'm fucking whipped ... just like these other pussies.' He indicated his band mates. — S.C. Stephens

I'll go," said Jared, and quieter, to Kami, "If you'll be all right?"

"Always am," Kami told him. She looked searchingly at her mother's face, then glanced up at Jared. "See you in a few, sunshine puppy," she told him, and lifted up on the tips of her toes and pressed a kiss on his mouth. She only caught the side, a little clumsily, but felt the curl of his small smile against her lips.

"Sunshine puppy?" he asked. "You're not even trying anymore."

"I am trying very hard," Kami informed him. "To be ridiculous. — Sarah Rees Brennan

I don't know why it is that one kind of dark can be so different from another. Real dark is thicker and quieter, it fills up the space between your jacket and your heart. It gets in your eyes. When I have to be out late at night, it's not knives and kicks I'm afraid of, though there are plenty of those behind walls and hedges. I'm afraid of the Dark. You, who walk so cheerfully, whistling your way, stand still for five minutes. Stand still in the Dark in a field or down a track. It's then you know you're there on sufferance. The Dark only lets you take one step at a time. Step and the Dark closes round your back. In front, there is no space for you until you take it. Darkness is absolute. Walking in the Dark is like swimming underwater except you can't come up for air. — Jeanette Winterson

She'd never imagined it like this-when she thought of someone (a woman like herself)losing her mind, she'd imagined shrieks and wails, hallucinations; but at that moment it had seemed clear that there was another way, far quieter; a way that was numb and hopeless, flat, so much so that an emotion as strong as sorrow would have been a relief. — Michael Cunningham

There was a different ending to 'New Moon' originally. It was a much quieter book. It was very much all in Bella's head. — Stephenie Meyer

Nowhere can man find a quieter or more untroubled retreat than in his own soul. — Marcus Aurelius

Sunday is the one day I keep reminding myself that I should lay around and take it easy, but because I am O.C.D. and an extreme multitasker, I find it hard to get lazy. I love Sundays for painting because it's quieter; the gallery is closed, and there are no interruptions. — April Gornik

I'm terrified of being poor, I always have been. It's growing up as a Methodist. I'll spend that bit of extra money to get a better seat on a train sometimes, because it's quieter and calmer, but I refuse to spend money on clothes. — Kevin McCloud

The quieter you become, the more you are able to hear. — Rumi

Real life is - quieter, more understated. No one is backlot and nothing has a soundtrack and no one has someone cleverer than them writing their lines. And so they just say nothing and get on with it. More's the pity, if you ask me, I quite like the idea of my own soundtrack. — Matthew Crow

You turned your head to look at me. Your eyes looked so big in your face, so mysterious - wide and flickering like a butterfly-wing mask. When you saw me the wails turned to sobs, and then just quieter heaves of your body. I held out my finger through the bars. Then you reached out and curled your fingers around mine, so tight. I knew you recognized me. That was the first time I knew I had a heart inside my body. — Francesca Lia Block

Bianca, one of the quieter members of the group, shocked us all by butting in. That's just not true. — R.K. Lilley

Every woman is strong, some are just quieter about it. — Lori King

When I first started doing the quieter, more acoustic material in Swans, there was a lot of derision and outright hatred from the audience and press, just as in the early days of Swans when we were rejected outright because of the bludgeoning, single-minded violence of the music. — Michael Gira

I seldom play in a trio, but acoustic music is likely to be lighter, quicker, and quieter. — Bill Bruford

On the riverfront thoroughfare, trams and buses roared past, grounding the day in the twenty-first century, but on the quieter lanes, the wintry peace might have hailed from another time. — Laini Taylor

Can you hyperventilate a little quieter?" he whispered. — Brynn Kelly

Badly drawn, badly written and badly printed - a strain on young eyes and young nervous systems - the effect of these pulp-paper nightmares is that of a violent stimulant. Their crude blacks and reds spoil the child's natural sense of color; their hypodermic injection of sex and murder makes the child impatient with better, though quieter, stories. Unless we want a coming generation even more ferocious than the present one, parents and teachers throughout America must band together to break the 'comic' magazines.

But the antidote to the 'comic' magazine poison can be found in any library or good bookstore. The parent who does not acquire that antidote for his child is guilty of criminal negligence. — Sterling North

Maybe I can quit drinking one of these days. They all say that, don't they?"
"It takes about three years."
"Three years?" He looked shocked. "Usually it does. It's a different world. You have to get used to a paler set of colors, a quieter lot of sounds. You have to allow for relapses. All the people you used to know well will get to be just a little strange. You won't even like most of them, and they won't like you too well. — Raymond Chandler

Today's young people want to know everything about everyone. They think talking about a problem will solve it. I come from a quieter generation. We understand the value of forgetting, the lure of reinvention. — Kristin Hannah

Shyness is about the fear of social judgments - at a job interview or a party you might be excessively worried about what people think of you. Whereas an introvert might not feel any of those things at all, they simply have the preference to be in a quieter setting. — Susan Cain

I suppose that Heartland, Unknown Soldier and Pride and Joy represent not a quieter side but more of a serious side to my work, something I've been getting into recently. — Garth Ennis

I thought it would be quieter here." [Anna] hadn't meant to say anything, but the noise startled her.
"The wind in the trees," Bran said. "And there are some birds that stay year-round. Sometimes when the wind is still and the cold is upon us, the quiet is so deep you can feel it in your bones. — Patricia Briggs

It didn't really get easier, per se. Our sadness just got quieter. — Christina Lauren

Well, at home, I'm in sweatpants, I'm not wearing any makeup, and I'm not standing with my hand on my hip while smiling. [Laughs] I try to be honest in interviews, but obviously you have to be careful about everything you say and do when you're being recorded. I'm much more comfortable and quieter at home. — Zoe Kravitz

My hope is that one day I'll be able to work and have a quieter life, but still a creative life. — James Mercer

As Will stood watching Pen, just before he turned away, his initial astonishment shifted into something quieter. Soon, she will see me; we'll sit someplace and talk, he thought. He felt like a kid who falls asleep on a long car trip, wakes up, and looks out the window to find that he's in a new place, or home, and that it's morning. — Marisa De Los Santos

I'm looking forward to becoming older and quieter. — Gwyneth Paltrow

When no one else is around, we open ourselves to the quieter astonishments that enormity can offer. — David Levithan

I think it's contentment. Where you have everything you ever wanted, all together in one place. It's quieter than excitement, but, [ ... ] maybe it's better. — Heather Anastasiu

It took the combined efforts of Cam and George to load the grumbling, protesting Leo into the carriage. "It's like hauling five sacks of potatoes all at once," the footman said breathlessly, pushing Leo's foot safely inside the vehicle.
"The potatoes would be quieter," Cam said. — Lisa Kleypas

The sign that the kundalini is releasing is not the development of miraculous powers, but that your mind is becoming quieter. — Frederick Lenz

Magic does that. It wastes you away. Once it grips you by the ear, the real world gets quieter and quieter, until you can hardly hear it at all. — Catherynne M Valente

The expression 'quiet as mice' is a puzzling one, because mice can often be very noisy, so people who are being quite as mice may in fact be squeaking and scrambling around. The expression 'quiet as mimes' is more appropriate, because mimes are people who perform theatrical routines without making a sound. Mimes are annoying and embarrassing, but they are much quieter than mice, so 'quiet as mimes' is a more proper way to describe how Violet and Sunny got up from their bunk, tiptoed across the dormitory, and walked out into the night. — Lemony Snicket

Just because you didn't speak the facts out loud didn't erase their existence. Silence was just a quieter way to lie. — Jodi Picoult

I feel like I'm a better person when I'm quieter. — Bill Murray

She was both more assured and quieter, deeper. It was as if the distance she had traveled had ironed out some of her foolish impulsiveness, her flippancy. — Amanda Coplin

Now listen, we need to be quiet as mice. No, quieter than that. As quiet as ... as ... "
"Dead mice?" Reynie suggested.
"Perfect," said Kate with an approving nod. "As quiet as dead mice. — Trenton Lee Stewart

Why can't a woman be a little cooler in her emotions and a little quieter and more repressed without it being a huge thing? I've actually always quite enjoyed that, to tell you the truth. — Anna Torv

During this week, Ragan has experience a bit of insecurity with me, the result of my being quieter than usual, which he interprets as being a withdrawal from him. "No," I countered, "it is a withdrawal into myself." I do not think the same need exists in him. Quiet can be the two of us reading silently. But he prefers that I be nearby. I need regular time without anybody else around in order to feel restored. — Phyllis Theroux

The most powerful prayer, one well-nigh omnipotent, and the worthiest work of all is the outcome of a quiet mind. The quieter it is the more powerful, the worthier, the deeper, the more telling and more perfect the prayer is. To the quiet mind all things are possible. What is a quiet mind? A quiet mind is one which nothing weighs on, nothing worries, which, free from ties and from all self-seeking, is wholly merged into the will of God and dead to its own. — Meister Eckhart

Dedicating some time to meditation is a meaningful expression of caring for yourself that can help you move through the mire of feeling unworthy of recovery. As your mind grows quieter and more spacious, you can begin to see self-defeating thought patterns for what they are, and open up to other, more positive options. — Sharon Salzberg

Sure, I've gotten old. I've had two bypass surgeries, a hip replacement, new knees ... I've fought prostate cancer and diabetes. I'm half blind, can't hear anything quieter than a jet engine, and take 40 different medications that make me dizzy, winded, and subject to blackouts. I have bouts with dementia, poor circulation, hardly feel my hands or feet anymore, can't remember if I'm 85 or 92, but ... thank God, I still have my Florida driver's license! — Red Buttons

If the would-be writer studies people in their everyday lives and discovers how to make his characters in their quieter moods interesting to his readers, he will have learned far more than he can ever learn from the constant presentation of crises. — Vera Brittain

Working on the Samurai sword is very different because your body position has to be very still. It's a much quieter was of fighting. — Lucy Liu

Kumiko and I felt something for each other from the beginning. It was not one of those strong, impulsive feelings that can hit two people like an electric shock when they first meet, but something quieter and gentler, like two tiny lights traveling in tandem through a vast darkness and drawing imperceptibly closer to each other as they go. As our meetings grew more frequent, I felt not so much that I had met someone new as that I had chanced upon a dear old friend. — Haruki Murakami

An island, on the other hand, is small. There are fewer species, and the competition for survival has never reached anything like the pitch that it does on the mainland. Species are only as tough as they need to be, life is much quieter and more settled [..] So you can imagine what happens when a mainland species gets introduced to an island. It would be like introducing Al Capone, Genghis Khan and Rupert Murdoch into the Isle of Wight - the locals wouldn't stand a chance. — Douglas Adams

I think there are writers who take a quieter approach to their work - one that is just about respectfully showing up for your vocation day after day, steadily doing your best, and letting go of the results. Not going to war against anyone else, or against their talents, or against themselves. — Elizabeth Gilbert

The other Miller was different. Quieter. Sad, maybe, but at peace. He'd read a poem many years before called "The Death-Self," and he hadn't understood the term until now. A knot at the middle of his psyche was untying. All the energy he'd put into holding things together - Ceres, his marriage, his career, himself - was coming free. He'd shot and killed more men in the past day than in his whole career as a cop. He'd started - only started - to realize that he'd actually fallen in love with the object of his search after he knew for certain that he'd lost her. He'd seen unequivocally that the chaos he'd dedicated his life to holding at bay was stronger and wider and more powerful than he would ever be. No compromise he could make would be enough. His death-self was unfolding in him, and the dark blooming took no effort. It was a relief, a relaxation, a long, slow exhale after decades of holding it in. — James S.A. Corey

Twins are a high-risk pregnancy, by definition. The quieter I am, the longer I can keep them growing. — Jane Pauley

I've never shied away from who I am, even when people asked me to be softer, quieter or warmer. I've proudly remained me. — Krista Ritchie

And Peter became a tall and deep-chested man and a great warrior, and he was called King Peter the Magnificent. And Susan grew into a tall and gracious woman with black hair that fell almost to her feet and the kings of the countries beyond the sea began to send ambassadors asking for her hand in marriage. And she was called Queen Susan the Gentle. Edmund was a graver and quieter man than Peter, and great in council and judgment. he was called King Edmund the Just. But as for Lucy, she was always gay and golden-haired, and all princes in those parts desired her to be their Queen, and her own people called her Queen Lucy the Valiant. — C.S. Lewis

Obviously, you have quieter years than others - you don't go jumping out of a plane every day. — Natalie Dormer

I prefer not to have among my guests two people or more, of any sex, who are in the first wild tremours of love. It is better to invite them after their new passion has settled, has solidified into a quieter reciprocity of emotions. (It is also a waste of good food, to serve it to new lovers.) — M.F.K. Fisher

Snow makes the world quieter and louder at the same time. — Mary-Rose MacColl

Some people think that you have to be the loudest voice in the room to make a difference. That is just not true. Often, the best thing we can do is turn down the volume. When the sound is quieter, you can actually hear what someone else is saying. And that can make a world of difference. — Nikki Haley

You know, fate intervened. I went on to the DCMS committee to have a quieter life before the phone hacking scandal broke, and then ended up investigating the company that had libelled me previously when I was a minister. — Tom A. Watson

But Drew liked the simplicity of her downsized life, this quieter existence. One needed, she saw now, only a few belongings, just as one needed only a few close friends, and a single passion - it need not be a person, necessarily. — Daphne Kalotay

What you do for Jewish New Year is you go down to Times Square ... It's a lot quieter than the regular New Year. It's just a few Jews walking around going, "sup?" — Jon Stewart

It is quite hard to relax in London. I always say I'd move somewhere quieter, but I am a bit of a confirmed urbanite now - it crept up on me without me noticing. I always think that I function quite well on my own, unusually so, but then I'm reminded how important people are to me. — Laura Marling

Listening. Nice idea but difficult to do with constant road and air traffic all around all the time. Please consider getting around by quieter means. Feet, bicycle, horse, it's up to you — Judith Weir

Surely we all occasionally buy books because of a daydream we're having
a little fantasy about the people we might turn into one day, when our lives are different, quieter, more introspective, and when all the urgent reading, whatever that might be, has been done. We never arrive at that point, needless to say ... — Nick Hornby

Stop it, you two!" Spiderleg's stern mew echoed around the hollow as he separated his kits. "We were just playing," Toadkit complained. "Well, play something quieter!" Spiderleg snapped. "I don't envy you, Graystripe. Two kits are hard enough." Then he yelped in pain. "When I told you to play something else, Toadkit, I didn't mean attacking my tail! — Erin Hunter

His noise is getting quieter, but I can still see it there still-
See how he feels the skin of my hand against his, see how he wants to take it and press it against his mouth, how he wants to breathe in the smell of me and how beautiful I look to him, how strong after all that illness, and how he wants to just lightly touch my neck, just there, and how he wants to take me in his arms and-
"Oh, God," he says, looking away suddenly. "Viola, I'm sorry, I didn't mean-"
But I just put my hand to the back of his neck-
And he says, "Viola-?"
And I pull myself towards him-
And I kiss him.
And it feels like, finally. — Patrick Ness

Take these chances Place them in a box until a quieter time Lights down, you up and die — Dave Matthews

The dead speak to those who listen. Be quieter than even them. — Kerri Maniscalco

Men seek for seclusion in the wilderness, by the seashore, or in the mountains - a dream you have cherished only too fondly yourself. But such fancies are wholly unworthy of a philosopher, since at any moment you choose you can retire within yourself. Nowhere can man find a quieter or more untroubled retreat than in his own soul; above all, he who possesses resources in himself, which he need only contemplate to secure immediate ease of mind - the ease that is but another word for a well-ordered spirit. Avail yourself often, then, of this retirement, and so continually renew yourself. — Marcus Aurelius

I come from a big, loud family, and I'm the quieter one. Performing is something I have to switch on. I've heard I get real sassy onstage, which I'm not in real life! It's fun to be that person for an hour a night. — Lorde