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About this quote

What does it mean?
If someone cannot understand your nonverbal cues, they lack the depth to understand your spoken words.
In plain terms
People who cannot read your silence will not get your words.
What can you take from it?
Silence tests whether others truly know you.

Where it applies

  • conflict
  • intimate relationships
  • friendship

Putting it to work

  • assess trust in relationships
  • recognize deep listeners

Questions to consider

  • Who understands your silence?
  • Can words ever replace silence?

Another view

It assumes silence is always meaningful rather than just passive.

More from Elbert Hubbard

  1. God will not look you over for medals, degrees, or diplomas, but for scars.

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  2. How many a man has thrown up his hands at a time when a little more effort, a little more patience would have achieved success?

    Permalink to quote #83
  3. Get happiness out of your work or you may never know what happiness is.

    Permalink to quote #80

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