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CHAPTER 10:

Silentness

“Be still! The crown of life is silentness.
Give thou a quiet hour to each long day,
Too much of time we spend in profitless
And foolish talk. Too little do we say.

“If thou wouldst gather words that shall avail,
Learning a wisdom worthy to express,
Leave for a while thy chat and empty tale-
Study the golden speech of silentness.”
— A.L.Salmon.

“Be still, my soul.
Rest awhile from the feverish activities in
which you lose yourself.
Be not afraid to be left alone with yourself
for one short hour.”
— Ernest Crosly.

In the words of a wise man there is great power, but his silence is more powerful still. The greatest
men teach us most effectively when they are purposely silent. The silent attitude of the great man
noted, perhaps, by one or two of his disciples only is recorded and preserved through the ages;
while the obtrusive words of the merely clever talker, heard, perhaps, by thousands, and at once
popularised, are neglected and forgotten in, at most, a few generations. The silence of Jesus, when
asked by Pilate “What is Truth?” is the impressive, the awful silence of profound wisdom; it is
pregnant with humility and reproof, and perpetually rebukes that shallowness that, illustrating
the truth that “fools step in where angels fear to tread,” would in terms of triteness parcel out the
universe, or think to utter the be-all and the end-all of the mystery of things in some textual
formula or theological platitude. When, plied with questions about Brahma (God) by the
argumentative Brahmans, Buddha remained silent, he taught them better than they knew, and if
by his silence he failed to satisfy the foolish he thereby profoundly instructed the wise. Why all
this ceaseless talk about God, with its accompaniment of intolerance? Let men practise some
measure of kindliness and good-will, and thereby acquaint themselves with the simple rudiments
of wisdom. Why all these speculative arguments about the nature of God? Let us first understand
somewhat of ourselves. There are no greater marks of folly and moral immaturity than
irreverence and presumption; no greater manifestations of wisdom and moral maturity than
reverence and humility. Lao-Tze, in his own life, exemplified his teaching that the wise man
“teaches without words.” Disciples were attracted to him by the power which ever accompanies a
wise reserve. Living in comparative obscurity and silence, not courting the ear of men, and never
going out to teach, men sought him out and learned of him wisdom.