Reticence Quotes (26 quotes)

“Never miss a good chance to shut up.”
― Will Rogers

tags: advice, funny, reticence, silence

2615 likes

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“I don't think..." then you shouldn't talk, said the Hatter.”
― Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

tags: mad-hatter, remaining-silent, reticence, silence

2322 likes

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“If animals could speak, the dog would be a blundering outspoken fellow; but the cat would have the rare grace of never saying a word too much.”
― Mark Twain

tags: animals, cats, dogs, grace, reticence

1746 likes

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“Never complain, never explain. Resist the temptation to defend yourself or make excuses.”
― Brian Tracy

tags: be-yourself, life, remaining-silent, reticence, wisdom

1597 likes

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“You should try not to talk so much, friend. You'll sound far less stupid that way.

- Breeze”
― Brandon Sanderson, Mistborn: The Final Empire

tags: humor, remaining-silent, reticence

1435 likes

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“Silence is only frightening to people who are compulsively verbalizing.”
― William S. Burroughs, The Job: Interviews with William S. Burroughs

tags: introspection, loquacity, remaining-silent, reticence, silence

1006 likes

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“Many times in life I've regretted the things I've said without thinking. But I've never regretted the things I said nearly as much as the words I left unspoken.”
― Lisa Kleypas, Sugar Daddy

tags: communication, remaining-silent, reticence

595 likes

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“The right word may be effective, but no word was ever as effective as a rightly timed pause.”
― Mark Twain

tags: remaining-silent, reticence

563 likes

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“It is always assumed by the empty-headed, who chatter about themselves for want of something better, that people who do not discuss their affairs openly must have something to hide.”
― Honoré de Balzac, Père Goriot

tags: gossip, psychology, remaining-silent, reticence, silence

401 likes

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“Among my most prized possessions are words that I have never spoken.”
― Orson Scott Card

tags: remaining-silent, restraint, reticence, words

365 likes

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“Silence does not always mark wisdom.”
― Samuel Taylor Coleridge

tags: remaining-silent, reticence, wisdom

262 likes

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“There are a great many opinions in this world, and a good half of them are professed by people who have never been in trouble."

(The Mill)”
― Anton Chekhov, The Portable Chekhov

tags: opinions, reticence, trouble

196 likes

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“I said nothing—I hadn’t known Marya, and anyway, “listening quietly” was my general social strategy”
― John Green, Looking for Alaska

tags: reticence

74 likes

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“There are many men in London, you know, who, some from shyness, some from misanthropy, have no wish for the company of their fellows. Yet they are not averse to comfortable chairs and the latest periodicals. It is for the convenience of these that the Diogenes Club was started, and it now contains the most unsociable and unclubbable men in town. No member is permitted to take the least notice of any other one. Save in the Stranger's Room, no talking is, under any circumstances, allowed, and three offenses, if brought to the notice of the committee, render the talker liable to expulsion. My brother was one of the founders, and I have myself found it a very soothing atmosphere.”
― Arthur Conan Doyle, The Adventure of the Greek Interpreter (The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, #9 )

tags: clubs, comfort, diogenes-club, misanthropy, mycroft-holmes, quietness, reticence, sherlock-holmes, silence

70 likes

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“I remember manners, that's when people are scared to make other persons mad.”
― Emma Donoghue, Room

tags: manners, politeness, reticence

53 likes

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“There should be a little gap between you and your friends, though you'll miss their companionship and you'll also miss their disrespect.”
― Michael Bassey Johnson

tags: alone, apart, breathing-space, companionship, disrespect, distance, escape, friends, gap, i-miss-you, intermission, interval, isolation, missing, missing-someone, remote, remoteness, reticence

37 likes

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“Nothing is as irritating to a shy man as a confident girl.”
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana

tags: aggravating, annoy, annoying, aphorism, aphorisms, aphorist, aphorists, aplomb, assertive, assertiveness, assured, at-ease, bashful, bashfulness, boldness, bothersome, can-do, confident, coolheaded, courage, coyness, cursed, demureness, diffidence, diffident, embarrassed, embarrassment, exasperating, extrovert, extroverted, farouche, funny, galling, girl, girls, hilarious, humor, humorous, humour, imperturbable, infuriating, inhibited, insecure, introversion, introvert, introverted, irksome, irritate, irritating, irritation, joke, jokes, lack-of-confidence, levelheaded, maddening, man, men, mettle, mousiness, mousy, nerve, nervous, nettlesome, obnoxious, pesky, phlegm, phlegmatic, poise, poised, positive, quotations, quotes, repressed, reserve, reserved, reservedness, reticence, reticent, retiring, satire, self-assurance, self-assured, self-confidence, self-confident, self-conscious, self-consciousness, self-effacing, self-possessed, self-possession, self-reliant, sheepish, sheepishness, shy, shyness, timid, timidity, timidness, timorous, timorousness, tiresome, together, troublesome, trying, unconfident, unperturbed, unruffled, vexatious, vexing, withdrawn

35 likes

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“Keep your problems to yourself, if its too much for you, kill it slowly till it disappears from your life.”
― Michael Bassey Johnson

tags: anxiety, conceal, cover, disappear, hidden, hide, hold-your-lips, independence, kill, mockery, mouth, mute, problem, problems, quiet, reserved, reticence, self-control, self-reliance, shut-up, slow, slowly, suicide, trouble, troublesome, yourself

19 likes

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“The post on her left was occupied by Mr. Erskine of Treadley, an old gentleman of considerable charm and culture, who had fallen, however, into bad habits of silence, having, as he explained once to Lady Agatha, said everything that he had to say before he was thirty.”
― Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray and Other Writings

tags: humor, reticence, silence

10 likes

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“Your silence is a little black garden. You know everything there by heart.”
― Joy Williams, Breaking and Entering

tags: garden, heart, interior-life, quiet, reticence, silence

7 likes

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“I do not want to talk about it.”
― Don DeLillo

tags: interviews, reticence

4 likes

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“ঠিক সময়ে ঠিক কথা বলার দাম এক টাকা, ঠিক সময়ে চুপ করে থাকার দাম দু'টাকা।”
― Bhaskar Chakraborty

tags: bangla, bengali, reticence, silence

4 likes

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“Reticence was clearly a national characteristic, even if the other person spoke French.”
― Sara Sheridan, British Bulldog

tags: france, french, mirabellebevan, paris, reticence, sara-sheridan

1 likes

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“Silence cannot be mispronounced, Silence cannot be misinterpreted, silence cannot be misquoted.”
― Amit Kalantri, Wealth of Words

tags: muteness, quiet, reticence, reticent, saying-nothing, silence, silence-quotes, silent, talking, words

1 likes

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“You know you're about as forthcoming as a mime.”
― Shirley Jump, Kissed by Cat

tags: conversation, humor, metaphor, mimes, reticence

0 likes

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“I asked Zdeněk if there was something he wanted to tell me. But he didn't need to tell me anything, it was enough to have seen me and confirm that I was in the world, and to let me know that he missed me, just as I missed him.”
― Bohumil Hrabal

tags: friendship, longing, missing-someone, reticence, sight

0 likes

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