“
And the air was full of Thoughts and Things to Say. But at times like these, only the Small Things are ever said. Big Things lurk unsaid inside.
”
”
Arundhati Roy (The God of Small Things)
“
Why do you keep coming?" she asked.
"Because," he said. Click on this word, he thought, and you will find links to everything it means. Because you are my oldest friend. Because, once, when I was at my lowest, you saved me. Because I might have died without you or ended up in a children's psychiatric hospital. Because I owe you. Because, selfishly, I see a future where we make fantastic games together, if you can manage to get out of bed. "Because," he repeated.
”
”
Gabrielle Zevin (Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow)
“
Wanting to Die
Since you ask, most days I cannot remember.
I walk in my clothing, unmarked by that voyage.
Then the almost unnameable lust returns.
Even then I have nothing against life.
I know well the grass blades you mention,
the furniture you have placed under the sun.
But suicides have a special language.
Like carpenters they want to know which tools.
They never ask why build.
Twice I have so simply declared myself,
have possessed the enemy, eaten the enemy,
have taken on his craft, his magic.
In this way, heavy and thoughtful,
warmer than oil or water,
I have rested, drooling at the mouth-hole.
I did not think of my body at needle point.
Even the cornea and the leftover urine were gone.
Suicides have already betrayed the body.
Still-born, they don't always die,
but dazzled, they can't forget a drug so sweet
that even children would look on and smile.
To thrust all that life under your tongue!—
that, all by itself, becomes a passion.
Death's a sad Bone; bruised, you'd say,
and yet she waits for me, year after year,
to so delicately undo an old wound,
to empty my breath from its bad prison.
Balanced there, suicides sometimes meet,
raging at the fruit, a pumped-up moon,
leaving the bread they mistook for a kiss,
leaving the page of the book carelessly open,
something unsaid, the phone off the hook
and the love, whatever it was, an infection.
”
”
Anne Sexton
“
What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us. ... Worship is pure or base as the worshiper entertains high or low thoughts of God.
For this reason the gravest question before the Church is always God Himself, and the most portentous fact about any man is not what he at a given time may say or do, but what he in his deep heart conceives God to be like. We tend by a secret law of the soul to move toward our mental image of God. This is true not only of the individual Christian, but of the company of Christians that composes the Church. Always the most revealing thing about the Church is her idea of God, just as her most significant message is what she says about Him or leaves unsaid, for her silence is often more eloquent than her speech. ...
”
”
A.W. Tozer
“
Why, isabel? Why are you doing this to yourself? To your body?'
And why are you doing this to me? is the awful, selfish thought that is left unsaid.
'Because I can,' she answers, and I shiver as she unconsciously echoes chastity-ruth.
'But-'
'Because it's my body,' she cuts in. 'Isn't it?
”
”
Louise O'Neill (Only Ever Yours)
“
I’m barely human. I’m more like a creature; to me, everything gives off a scent! Thoughts, moments, feelings, movements, words left unsaid, words barely spoken; they all have a distinct sense, distinct fragrances! Both a smell and a touch! To inhale is to capture, to experience! I can perceive and I can “touch” in so many odd ways! And so I am made up of all these scents, all these feelings! An illumination of nerve endings!
”
”
C. JoyBell C.
“
Positive words left unsaid are like sachets of currency notes burnt in vain. Positive deeds left undone are like deep wells filled with soil to the brim. Do the undone, say the unsaid and turn the unturned.
”
”
Israelmore Ayivor
“
An addition that takes time to depart, and sometimes, never leaves at all. A smell, a touch, thoughts, moments, feelings, movements, words left unsaid, words barely spoken; they all have a distinct sense, distinct fragrances! .... A pungent of cinnamon, an aroma of a rose, a summer breeze, a sweet smile like a per-fume that lingers on and on... endlessly.
”
”
Angie karan
“
A lot of pain that we are dealing with are really only THOUGHTS.
”
”
Abhysheq Shukla (Feelings Undefined: The Charm of the Unsaid Vol. 1)
“
By swallowing evil word unsaid noone has ever yet harmed his stomach.
”
”
Winston S. Churchill
“
Your eyes are like windows to your soul. They shine and bedazzle as the stars do in the sky! They are like diamonds that mesmerize the person looking at them. When I look into your eyes, I keep on looking at them. I can't ever stop looking at them. Your eyes speak volumes to me in unsaid word...
”
”
Avijeet Das
“
You and I will always be unfinished business.
There are too many words unsaid,
too many thoughts unfelt
and too many feelings unexpressed.
”
”
Insha Juneja
“
At times poetry is the vertigo of bodies and the vertigo of speech and the vertigo of death;
the walk with eyes closed along the edge of the cliff, and the verbena in submarine gardens;
the laughter that sets on fire the rules and the holy commandments;
the descent of parachuting words onto the sands of the page;
the despair that boards a paper boat and crosses,
for forty nights and forty days, the night-sorrow sea and the day-sorrow desert;
the idolatry of the self and the desecration of the self and the dissipation of the self;
the beheading of epithets, the burial of mirrors;
the recollection of pronouns freshly cut in the
garden of Epicurus, and the garden of Netzahualcoyotl;
the flute solo on the terrace of memory and the dance of flames in the cave of thought;
the migrations of millions of verbs, wings and claws, seeds and hands;
the nouns, bony and full of roots, planted on the waves of language;
the love unseen and the love unheard and the love unsaid: the love in love.
”
”
Octavio Paz
“
Katrina thought of all the nights she felt certain she would die alone. With no one to care, and
a million things left unsaid. Even Ms. Satomi didn't know how difficult it was when you didn't feel real. Even Ms. Satomi didn't know how it felt when the only real thing genuine about you was the hurt your existence caused.
”
”
Ryka Aoki (Light from Uncommon Stars)
“
When she walked away I felt the weight of what she left unsaid. I wanted to call after her, Ma! You have it all wrong. But just as she kept her thoughts to herself, I was learning to do the same. This was what growing up was about: hide the corpse, don’t bare your heart, do make assumptions about the motives of others. They’re certainly doing all these things to you. I
”
”
Abraham Verghese (Cutting for Stone)
“
This, she thought, was what love and desperation made you do: say things that were better left unsaid, give yourself away in a million little gestures, a thousand little changes of expression.
”
”
Cathy Williams (Suitable Mistress)
“
you really not know the reason why I came? I came back for you. I’ll always come back for you.” He pressed his forehead to hers. His nearness tickled her senses, and she couldn’t help but hold him even tighter. Jared gently tipped Mina’s chin up, and he leaned down to press his lips to hers in a soft kiss that quickly turned into desire. So many pent-up emotions and unsaid words spilled out between them in a kiss to top all kisses. Never before had she lost all sense of time and place as her lips sought after those of her protector, her friend and her Fae prince. All thoughts of Brody disappeared as her world encompassed Jared and Jared only. He pulled away, and he was visibly shaking from the intensity of their kiss. “Mina, I want you to know that I’ve felt alone for a very long time. I was incomplete, and nothing could fill that void. Until I met you. I’ve known for a long time, but I wasn’t sure how you felt about me. At times I thought you hated me, but I wanted to tell you that I, uh, Mina, I lo—aaaarrgh!
”
”
Chanda Hahn (Fable (An Unfortunate Fairy Tale, #3))
“
Yeah well, I’ve never had much opportunity to fight with family,” I said.
“I have,” she said. “Everyone cares about everyone else. So when you get mad and say something horrible, it hurts that much more. And too many things go unsaid. That’s the worst, I think. Everyone thinks they know one another better than they probably do, so you fill in the silences with things the other person never actually said. Or thought. Or thought about saying.
”
”
Jim Butcher (Peace Talks (The Dresden Files, #16))
“
After all, things thought but left unsaid only fester inside you.
”
”
Yoshida Kenkō (A Cup of Sake Beneath the Cherry Trees)
“
She will not tell you all her thoughts, feelings, and emotions. You have to understand her unsaid words.
”
”
Avijeet Das
“
The unsaid words pushed roughly against the thoughts that we had no craft to verbalize, and crowded the room to uneasiness.
”
”
Maya Angelou (I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (Maya Angelou's Autobiography, #1))
“
Eyes reveal the unsaid things. The innocence, the flirtations, and the naughtiness all emanate from the eyes.
”
”
Avijeet Das
“
I left his room because, and only because, we had said all we could say. The unsaid words pushed roughly against the thoughts that we had no craft to verbalize, and crowded the room to uneasiness.
”
”
Maya Angelou (I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (Maya Angelou's Autobiography, #1))
“
I tell my students to write of their true subjects. How will they know when they are writing of their true subjects? By the ease with which they write. By their reluctance to stop writing. By the headachy, even guilty, joyous sensation of having done something that must be done, having confessed emotions thought unconfessable, having said what had seemed should remain unsaid. If writing is difficult, stop writing. Begin again with another subject. The true subject writes itself, it cannot be silenced. Give shape to your dreams, your day-dreams, cultivate your day-dreams and their secret meanings will come out.
”
”
Joyce Carol Oates
“
Not much time will be gained, O Athenians, in return for the evil name which you will get from the detractors of the city, who will say that you killed Socrates, a wise man; for they will call me wise even although I am not wise when they want to reproach you. If you had waited a little while, your desire would have been fulfilled in the course of nature. For I am far advanced in years, as you may perceive, and not far from death. I am speaking now only to those of you who have condemned me to death. And I have another thing to say to them: You think that I was convicted through deficiency of words - I mean, that if I had thought fit to leave nothing undone, nothing unsaid, I might have gained an acquittal. Not so; the deficiency which led to my conviction was not of words - certainly not. But I had not the boldness or impudence or inclination to address you as you would have liked me to address you, weeping and wailing and lamenting, and saying and doing many things which you have been accustomed to hear from others, and which, as I say, are unworthy of me. But I thought that I ought not to do anything common or mean in the hour of danger: nor do I now repent of the manner of my defence, and I would rather die having spoken after my manner, than speak in your manner and live. For neither in war nor yet at law ought any man to use every way of escaping death. For often in battle there is no doubt that if a man will throw away his arms, and fall on his knees before his pursuers, he may escape death; and in other dangers there are other ways of escaping death, if a man is willing to say and do anything. The difficulty, my friends, is not in avoiding death, but in avoiding unrighteousness; for that runs faster than death. I am old and move slowly, and the slower runner has overtaken me, and my accusers are keen and quick, and the faster runner, who is unrighteousness, has overtaken them. And now I depart hence condemned by you to suffer the penalty of death, and they, too, go their ways condemned by the truth to suffer the penalty of villainy and wrong; and I must abide by my award - let them abide by theirs. I suppose that these things may be regarded as fated, - and I think that they are well.
”
”
Plato (Apology)
“
There's a difference between unspoken and unsaid," Jaycee says. "Just because chimpanzees cannot speak doesn't mean they have nothing to say; the ability to vocalize thoughts is not the same as the ability to acquire and use language...Language is really just a systematic means of communication through symbols or sounds. Almost all animals use language. The problem is that when it comes to the issue of language, humans are incredibly narcissistic. Since we literally hold the key to their cages, our language is the only one that counts.
”
”
Neil Abramson
“
A BIG PART OF SONGWRITING, like all writing, is editing—distilling thought down to essentials. Novice writers often hide behind filigree. In many cases the artistry is in what is unsaid. As the old saying goes, an iceberg moves gracefully because most of it is beneath the surface.
”
”
Bob Dylan (The Philosophy of Modern Song)
“
A feeling struck me one fine day that people call ‘love’,
Before that my life was empty, all I had was loneliness and sorrow…
I loved the way it felt being with him, for I felt up above,
Now everything was complete and nothing remained hollow…
That person who cupid made me fall for, was a God descended from heavens,
I loved him with all I had, a true heart and a pure soul…
I thought I achieved the meaning of life, never did I felt so glad,
But when he left me amidst a chaos, I had no one with me to console…
I cried, it hurt, I wept and screamed, everyone called me ‘mad’,
And still I wonder if in my life, that actually was his role…
But a string still binds me to my past of untold vow,
Some unsaid promises that linger between us even now,
Although I don’t know where he went after that fateful day…
I still try to convince myself every day, I know how,
Each moment has been tough, each day a new challenge…
Each hour passed as if it was my heart that always allowed,
One more day to live without him, one more day to cherish…
One more day to spend without the love of my life somehow,
But he doesn’t know that one day, the girl herself would perish…
Who loved him and lived each day of her life in his wait,
For the man who never returned, for the man who wasn’t in her fate…
”
”
Mehek Bassi (Chained: Can you escape fate?)
“
In accordance with the prevailing conceptions in the U.S., there is no infringement on democracy if a few corporations control the information system: in fact, that is the essence of democracy. In the Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, the leading figure of the public relations industry, Edward Bernays, explains that “the very essence of the democratic process” is “the freedom to persuade and suggest,” what he calls “the engineering of consent.” “A leader,” he continues, “frequently cannot wait for the people to arrive at even general understanding … Democratic leaders must play their part in … engineering … consent to socially constructive goals and values,” applying “scientific principles and tried practices to the task of getting people to support ideas and programs”; and although it remains unsaid, it is evident enough that those who control resources will be in a position to judge what is “socially constructive,” to engineer consent through the media, and to implement policy through the mechanisms of the state. If the freedom to persuade happens to be concentrated in a few hands, we must recognize that such is the nature of a free society.
”
”
Noam Chomsky (Necessary Illusions: Thought Control in Democratic Societies)
“
Thoughts left unsaid are never wasted.
”
”
Henry S. Haskins
“
But Kerry allowed her first thought, bitter as ginger root, to go where most first thoughts should go: unsaid. Skimmed off to leave something kinder beneath.
”
”
Joy Jordan-Lake (Under a Gilded Moon)
“
The unsaid words pushed roughly against the thoughts that we had no craft to verbalize, and crowded the room to uneasiness. 34 Later, my room had all the cheeriness of a dungeon and the appeal of a tomb.
”
”
Maya Angelou (I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings)
“
How much longer should I wait? The answer came to me. Wait as long as you need to. The waiting is as important as doing; it's the time you spent training and the rest in between; it's painting the subject and the space in between; it's the reading and the thinking about what you've read; it's the written words that , what is said, what is left unsaid, the space between the thoughts on the page, that makes the story, and it's the space between the notes, the intervals between fast and slow, that makes the music. It's the love of being together, the spacing, the tension of being apart, that brings you back together.
”
”
Lynne Cox (Grayson)
“
And though she’d never directly expressed her distaste, Sumaya knew what her friend thought of her relationship: that she’d settled. That she’d played it safe. And deep down, she thought maybe Mallory was right.
”
”
Tufayel Ahmed (Better Left Unsaid)
“
In the end, neither fretting nor bravado could distract him any longer from the thought that he was fatherless. He and his father had in their jocular, gingerly fashion loved each other, but now that his father was dead, Joe felt only regret. It was not just the usual regret over things left unsaid, thanks unexpressed and apologies withheld. Joe did not yet regret the lost future opportunities for expatiation on favorite shared subjects, such as film directors (they revered Buster Keaton) or breeds of dogs.
”
”
Michael Chabon (The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay)
“
talk is for communicating need-to-know information; quiet and introspection are signs of deep thought and higher truth. Words are potentially dangerous weapons that reveal things better left unsaid. They hurt other people; they can get their speaker into trouble.
”
”
Anonymous
“
These results would not surprise anyone familiar with traditional Asian attitudes to the spoken word: talk is for communicating need-to-know information; quiet and introspection are signs of deep thought and higher truth. Words are potentially dangerous weapons that reveal things better left unsaid. They hurt other people; they can get their speaker into trouble.
”
”
Susan Cain (Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking)
“
When she walked away I felt the weight of what she left unsaid. I wanted to call after her, Ma! You have it all wrong. But just as she kept her thoughts to herself, I was learning to do the same. This was what growing up was about: hide the corpse, don’t bare your heart, do make assumptions about the motives of others. They’re certainly doing all these things to you.
”
”
Abraham Verghese (Cutting for Stone)
“
talk is for communicating need-to-know information; quiet and introspection are signs of deep thought and higher truth. Words are potentially dangerous weapons that reveal things better left unsaid. They hurt other people; they can get their speaker into trouble. Consider, for example, these proverbs from the East: The wind howls, but the mountain remains still. —JAPANESE PROVERB
”
”
Susan Cain (Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking)
“
This is the most common misconception about speechwriting. It came up especially often in the years before I started at the White House, when I wrote for CEOs. “You seem capable,” they would tell me, “but can you really find my voice?” “I think I can manage it,” I’d reply gravely. Left unsaid is that it would be easy, because when it comes to rhetorical styling, 99.9 percent of speeches sound the same. Martin Luther King had a voice. John F. Kennedy had a voice. With all due respect, you probably don’t. What you do have are thoughts. What you need, although you may not know it, is someone to organize them. A good writer can take your ten ideas and turn them into one coherent whole. Where you see two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, and onions on a sesame seed bun, a speechwriter sees a Big Mac.
”
”
David Litt (Thanks, Obama: My Hopey, Changey White House Years)
“
We sat within the farm-house old,
Whose windows, looking o'er the bay,
Gave to the sea-breeze damp and cold,
An easy entrance, night and day.
Not far away we saw the port,
The strange, old-fashioned, silent town,
The lighthouse, the dismantled fort,
The wooden houses, quaint and brown.
We sat and talked until the night,
Descending, filled the little room;
Our faces faded from the sight,
Our voices only broke the gloom.
We spake of many a vanished scene,
Of what we once had thought and said,
And who was changed, and who was dead;
And all that fills the hearts of friends,
When first they feel, with secret pain,
Their lives thenceforth have separate ends,
And never can be one again;
The first slight swerving of the heart,
That words are powerless to express,
And leave it still unsaid in part,
Or say it in too great excess.
The very tones in why we spake,
Had something strange, I could but mark;
The leaves of memory seemed to make
A mournful rattling in the dark.
Oft died the words upon our lips,
As suddenly, from out the fire
Built of the wreck of stranded ships,
The flames would leap and then expire.
And, as their splendor flashed and failed,
We thought of wrecks upon the main,
Of ships dismasted, that were hailed
And sent no answer back again.
The windows, rattling in their frames,
The ocean, roaring up the beach,
The gusty blast, the bickering flames,
All mingled vaguely in our speech;
Until they made themselves a part
Of fancies floating through the brain,
The long-lost ventures of the heart,
That send no answers back again.
O flames that glowed! O hearts that yearned!
They were indeed too much akin,
The drift-wood fire without that burned,
The thoughts that burned and glowed within.
”
”
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
“
Sleepless nights, infinite random thoughts, Remembering those moments, he had much to say, an urge to talk to someone, to be cared, to be loved, to be understood !! She was gone by now, And he was lost !! There it was, A white paper note, a pen, and the dark clouds forcing him to spill out !! Yes Words did most of talking, the unsaid words took the paper form .. Strange it was, the way Love was lost somewhere in the Library stacks !!
”
”
Douglas Self
“
All philosophic propositions, every attempt to think including all acts of oral or written articulation of an argument and metaphorically expressed ideas, are subject to the dynamics and limitations of human language. The spoken thought is only part of any philosophic message; the other part is unsaid because it is unsayable. The crux of any philosophic proposition reverberates in the echo of silence, the thought that lies in-between the lines.
”
”
Kilroy J. Oldster (Dead Toad Scrolls)
“
You've given me everything I need of you-thanks to you I have all my heart desires, all I thought I might never have. All I need for a wonderful, fulfilling future. And I nearly lost it all."
She held his gaze but was wise enough not to interrupt. If she had...
He drew breath and forged on, "Nearly dying clarified things. When you stand on the border between life and death, the truly important things are easy to discern. One of the things I saw and finally understood was that only fools and cowards leave the truth of love unsaid. Only the weak leave love unacknowledged."
Holding her gaze, all but lost in the shimmery blue of her eyes, he raised her hand to his lips, gently kissed. "So, my darling Heather, even though you already know it, let me put the truth-my truth-into words. I love you. With all my heart, to the depths of my soul. And I will love you forever, until the day I die."
Her smile lit his world. "Just as well." Happiness shone in her eyes. She pressed his fingers. "Because I plan to be with you, by your side, every day for the rest of your life, and in spirit far beyond. I'm yours for all eternity."
Smiling, he closed his hand about hers. "Mine to protect for our eternity."
Yes. Neither said the word, yet the sense of it vibrated in the air all around them.
A high-pitched giggle broke the spell, had them both looking along the path.
TO Lucilla and Marcus, who slipped out from behind a raised bed and raced toward them.
Reaching them, laughing with delight, the pair whooped and circled.
Heather glanced to left and right, trying to keep the twins in sight, uncertain of what had them so excited. So exhilarated.
Almost as if they were reacting to the emotions coursing through her, and presumably Breckenridge. Her husband-to-be.
"You're getting married!" Lucilla crowed.
Catching Lucilla's eyes as the pair slowed their circling dance, Heather nodded. "Yes, we are. And I rather think you two will have to come down in London to be flower girl and page boy."
Absolute delight broke across Lucilla's face. She looked at her brother. "See? I told you-the Lady never makes a mistake, and if you do what shetells you, you get a reward."
"I suppose." Marcus looked up at Breckenridge. "London will be fun." He switched his gaze to Lucilla. "Come on! Let's go and tell Mama and Papa.
”
”
Stephanie Laurens (Viscount Breckenridge to the Rescue (Cynster, #16; The Cynster Sisters Trilogy, #1))
“
He pressed his forehead to hers. His nearness tickled her senses, and she couldn’t help but hold him even tighter. Jared gently tipped Mina’s chin up, and he leaned down to press his lips to hers in a soft kiss that quickly turned into desire. So many pent-up emotions and unsaid words spilled out between them in a kiss to top all kisses. Never before had she lost all sense of time and place as her lips sought after those of her protector, her friend and her Fae prince. All thoughts of Brody disappeared as her world encompassed Jared and Jared only.
”
”
Chanda Hahn (Fable (An Unfortunate Fairy Tale, #3))
“
I wanted to sleep. I wanted to dream. I wanted to escape. And wake up having forgotten everything. For that was of course the most important reason for not saying anything to her. As long as things remained unsaid, there was still a chance that we could forget. That we could sleep and dream in such a way that when we awoke it had disappeared, become something abstract, scenes from something that only took place in our heads, on the same level as those treacherous thoughts and fantasies that are the daily infidelity in every – even the most all-consuming – loving relationship.
”
”
Jo Nesbø (Headhunters)
“
To The Warmongers
I'm back again from hell
With loathsome thoughts to sell;
secrets of death to tell;
And horrors from the abyss.
Young faces bleared with blood
sucked down into the mud,
You shall hear things like this,
Till the tormented slain
Crawl round and once again,
With limbs that twist awry
Moan out their brutish pain,
As the fighters pass them by.
For you our battles shine
With triumph half-divine;
And the glory of the dead
Kindles in each proud eye.
But a curse is on my head,
That shall not be unsaid,
And the wounds in my heart are red,
For I have watched them die.
”
”
Siegfried Sassoon (The War Poems)
“
I met a great woman tonight whose mom just died. I was saying to her that after my dad died, I cried so much. I cried pretty much every day for six months, and I mean really crying. What I was mourning was the loss of a very specific feeling. Our relationship was so simple. Totally pure. Effortless. There was no tension, nothing unsaid, nothing I would have wanted more or less of. And I know my brothers felt exactly the same way. He wasn’t just my person, he was theirs too. So, maybe three months after he died, I was driving and I started crying again and I thought, This is incredible. An eighty-five-year-old man died, and here I am, fifty years old, with a full life, and I am crying so hard I have to pull over and blow my nose. I wasn’t ashamed, I was astonished that people could ever love each other that much. It’s fucking amazing. If my kid is crying that hard when she’s fifty years old because we meant that much to each other? I would say that level of connection is pretty much the complete realization of our potential as human beings.
”
”
Kelly Corrigan (Tell Me More: Stories about the 12 Hardest Things I'm Learning to Say)
“
Fathers and sons, probably one of the most emotionally deep, human relationships. Probably one of the most intense human equations. Words alone cannot describe what a father and son feel for each other, simply because there are such few words in this relationship. So much is left unsaid between the two of them. Communication, or rather a lack of it, always broadens the gap between the two of them. There’s always a gap between a father and son, always a gap between a name and a surname. I’ve always asked myself and today I address this question to all of you sons out there: Why did you stop hugging your father after a certain age? Why did you stop expressing, and being affectionate to your father after a certain age? Why is there this inexplicable awkwardness between a father and son? Why are all your emotions, your innermost thoughts, your tears, always reserved for your mother, your sister and then your wife? Why? Because you then become a father, and then you bottle up, just like your father did, and this vicious circle continues. Who is going to break this vicious circle? I realized, and I’m sure this applies to all of you as well, that, like everybody else, I too had issues, minor issues with my father, like every other son. You could call it a generation gap, you could call it a difference of opinion, you could call it anything. But what I also realized was that I was subconsciously being the man my father is. I was talking like him, feeling like him, loving like him—I was just being him. I then realized that a father not only gives his son his name, he also gives him his personality. So somewhere, if you have a problem with your father, you actually have a problem with yourself. Ladies and gentlemen, I’ve had this realization and this opportunity to express myself, and I wish with all my heart, that one day you do too. My father is my conscience, my father is my strength, my father is my support, my father is my hero. I don’t say it often enough to you, Dad, but what better than this global platform to say, I love you. I love you very, very, very much. And I wish I could love you as much as you love me, but I don’t think I’m capable of such unconditional love. I love you. You are my world. And then Amit uncle, who was there, said: ‘Ladies and gentlemen, I think whatever needed to be said about Mr Yash Johar, his son Karan has very ably done.
”
”
Karan Johar (Unsuitable Boy)
“
Now that she was twenty-two, the words were there in her head, jumbled. The feeling was still too hot to approach but was slowly beginning to make sense. If she would just give herself the time and space to think about it, to examine the thing she’d spent her whole life avoiding, she would realize that what she wanted to say to her mother was that she was the one who had no idea—no idea how badly Ky and people like Ky needed a break. No idea how speaking perfect English and having an office job and being born in Australia didn’t mean what any of them thought it would mean. No idea how hard it was to walk the narrow path where everyone expected her to be quiet and smart and hardworking and good—a narrow path not even laid out by her or people like her. No idea how it felt to suffer the slow death of a thousand cuts: from the things people said, from the way people looked at her. The looks she got when she knocked on doors, walked into a room, boarded a flight; the way they saw her skin before they saw her, wanted her to shut up and be grateful, expected her to take a joke when she was the joke. The way she was expected to feel lucky, so lucky, like her life was abundant and full, when all she felt was depleted and diminished. It made her feel crazy to be called lucky, and her mother had no idea.
”
”
Tracey Lien (All That's Left Unsaid)
“
I’m sorry,' [Marty] said unexpectedly.
“Huh?”
“That we never got to perform that duet together. Don’t you remember? For the Spring Concert?”
“Oh, yeah. What was that song we were going to sing?” I asked.
She placed her right hand on her hip and mock-pouted at me. “James Garraty, don’t tell me you forgot.”
I gave her an impish who, me look. When she smiled, I said in a more serious tone: “‘Somewhere,’ from West Side Story.” I hummed the song’s first measure; it sounded a half-octave off key.
Marty frowned. “You haven’t practiced lately,” she said disapprovingly.
“No, I haven’t,” I said, and as I said it waves of melancholy washed over me like a cold dark tide. Marty saw my expression change; she walked up to me and placed her arm around my shoulder comfortingly.
“I know,” she said softly, “how much you were looking forward to it, Jim. I was looking forward to singing that duet with you, too.”
“Really?” I asked.
“Really. You’re a terrific singer. Who wouldn’t want to sing a duet with you?”
“I bet,” I said, “you say that to all the boys.”
She laughed. My heart jumped as it usually did when she laughed. A thought clicked in my brain: What was it I’d written just a while ago? You are the one person who has the ability to brighten up a sour day. You have always managed to make me return a smile to someone else.
”
”
Alex Diaz-Granados (Reunion: A Story: A Novella)
“
I heard the door at the far end of the hallway swing open. Then I heard familiar footsteps approaching. After going to three different schools for seven years, I knew it was Mark.
“Hi, Mark,” I said.
“Hey, pal. I thought I’d find you here,” Mark said.
I sighed wearily.
“Did you find her?” Mark asked tentatively.
“Yeah.”
“Did you tell her how you feel?”
“In a manner of speaking, yes.”
“What did she say?”
I turned around to face my best friend. Concern born of seven years’ worth of friendship was written on his open face. Whatever his faults, you could never accuse Mark of being unconcerned.
“I – ah – wrote her a letter,” I said slightly embarrassed.
“I see,” he said quietly. He pursed his lips. “Did she say anything?”
“I asked her not to read it until after commencement.”
“I see,” he said again. I could tell he was disappointed in me.
There was another one of those awkward silences. I felt oddly like a mischievous schoolboy who’d been sent to the principal’s office for some infraction of the rules. Mark just shook his head in disbelief and gave me a tut-tut look.
“You know,” he said quietly, “sometimes playing it safe can be the worst thing you can do.”
“Macht nichts,” I said bitterly.
“Like hell, macht nichts, pal. It makes a hell of a difference, if you ask me.” Mark shook his head sadly. “I really don’t want to be there when you find out for yourself what a stupid mistake it is that you made today.
”
”
Alex Diaz-Granados (Reunion: A Story: A Novella)
“
The family that had once welcomed him and been his as well, especially after his father deteriorated, took a step back. And he found he was instantly isolated, separated by their loyalty to Julia. No one ever said anything directly; no acknowledgement was ever made of how she was found. They were grieving the loss of their sister, their child. He was alone in grieving the loss of his marriage as well. The gap widened. An unspoken hostility grew between them, built from the unsaid words; a kind of defensiveness on both sides, which gradually hardened into a wall. Had they believed he had something to do with her infidelity? That he’d driven her to it through some neglect or unfaithfulness of his own? Had she confided in them about her lack of marital satisfaction? And so it spread outwards like a kind of web; extending to embrace her friends – friends he’d thought of as belonging to him too until they struggled to make eye contact with him at the funeral or no longer bothered to ring. He hadn’t been the one who’d cheated. But he was the one who felt punished for the affair. The one who was left. ‘It’s time you moved on,’ people began to say, as little as six months later. ‘You need to let go of that now.’ Yes, he needed to let go of it, accept it, and endure the increasing indifference of those he thought had loved him. He needed to grow up, get on. Life wasn’t fair. Who ever said life was fair? So she cheated. Time to get a girlfriend; buy a house…start again. Yet
”
”
Kathleen Tessaro (The Debutante)
“
In the world of love and sacrifice, some things are better left unsaid.
”
”
Salam Al Shereida
“
Our neighbor, Hugo du Toit, was a very handsome Afrikaner, who, with his two sisters, was a close friend of Louis Botha, the first Prime Minister of the Union of South Africa, and also a close friend of General Jan Christiaan Smuts, the Prime Minister of the Union of South Africa from 1919 until 1924. He became a South African military leader during World War II. Although some accuse Smuts of having started apartheid, he later stood against it and was a force behind the founding of the United Nations. He is still considered one of the most eminent Afrikaners ever…. At his expansive farm house, Hugo had autographed photos of both men on his study wall. Parties were frequently held at my grandparents’ home and the thought of roasted turkeys and potatoes which Cherie had prepared, brings back warm memories of a delightful era, now lost forever.”
The Colonial History of South Africa
For many years South Africa was occupied primarily by Dutch farmers known as Boers who had first arrived in the Cape of Good Hope in 1652 when Jan van Riebeeck established the Dutch East India Company and later by British settlers who arrived in the Cape colony after the Napoleonic wars in the 1820’s, on board the sailing ships the Nautilus and the Chapman. For the most part the two got along like oil and water. After 1806, some of the Dutch-speaking settlers left the Cape Colony and trekked into the interior where they established the Boer Republics. There were many skirmishes between them, as well as with the native tribes. In 1877 after the First Boer War between the Dutch speaking farmers and the English, the Transvaal Boer republic was seized by Britain. Hostilities continued until the Second Boer War erupted in October of 1899, costing the British 22,000 lives. The Dutch speaking farmers, now called Afrikaners, lost 7,000 men and having been overrun by the English acknowledged British sovereignty by signing the peace agreement, known as the “Treaty of Vereeniging,” on May 31, 1902.
Although this thumbnail sketch of South African history leaves much unsaid, the colonial lifestyle continued on for the privileged white ruling class until the white, pro-apartheid National Party, was peacefully ousted when the African National Congress won a special national election. Nelson Mandela was elected as the first black president on May 9, 1994. On May 10, 1994, Mandela was inaugurated as The Republic of South Africa's new freely elected President with Thabo Mbeki and F.W. De Klerk as his vice-presidents.
”
”
Hank Bracker
“
The more I say nice things, or speak the thought it used to seem easier to leave unsaid, the more I realize how much everyone needs to hear them.
”
”
Sarah Lyons Fleming (Peripeteia (The City, #2))
“
He loved Elspeth so much, and he hoped that she knew it. Yet it occurred to him that she might not be sure of that because he had not told her – or at least he had not told her recently. Wives and husbands, it seemed to him, did not say that sort of thing: it was all left unsaid – assumed, perhaps, but not spelled out. That was the problem with life in general – we slipped into a rut in which we failed to state what we meant by the things we did. Our lives, Matthew thought, can become like silent films without the subtitles.
”
”
Alexander McCall Smith (The Enigma of Garlic (44 Scotland Street, #16))
“
Everyone cares about everyone else, so when you get mad and say something horrible, it hurts that much more. And too many things go unsaid. That’s the worst, I think. Everyone thinks they know one another better than they probably do, so you fill in the silences with things the other person never actually said. Or thought. Or thought about saying.
”
”
Jim Butcher (Peace Talks (The Dresden Files, #16))
“
We spend so much time with out parents, Rachel thought, it's a shame we don't get to know them.
”
”
Emma Kennedy (The Things We Left Unsaid)
“
When anger and misperception are high, some thoughts are best left unsaid.
”
”
Roger Fisher (Getting to Yes: Negotiating an agreement without giving in)
“
The problem is it just hit me that she sang Unsaid Emily to me earlier. How is that possible?”
The grin slid off of Alex’s face, a look of concentration replacing it.
“I mean, it must be like with Bright. She did see your notebook that day.”
“I wrote down the chords for my guitar, not the melody. How did she know what the voice part should sound like?”
“What are you saying?” Alex asked. “Are we back to stalker? Psychic? Or…”
He frowned and trailed off.
“Nah, no way.”
Now it was Luke’s turn to frown at his friend’s cryptic comment.
“What?”
“Nothing, just a random crazy thought,” Alex brushed him off. “Anyway, what are you saying?”
Luke bit his lip and looked back up towards the garage where he knew Julie was, the light just visible from their spot near the street.
“I’m saying you were right. There’s something weird about Julie.
”
”
ICanSpellConfusionWithAK (We Found Wonderland)
“
It was intriguing how people came at their stories, Finnegan thought as he listened to Isabelle. He had learned to watch the gap between question and answer, having realized that the less obvious the connection the more interesting the material left unsaid. Diving into the gap yourself was rarely productive, but if allowed to talk uninterrupted, the storyteller would eventually build bridges across it, bridges made of memories that felt safe and familiar, anecdotes that had turned solid and durable with the retelling
”
”
Erica Bauermeister (The Lost Art of Mixing (A School of Essential Ingredients Novel))
“
No one taught me how to analyse a book, how to read from a safe distance, how not to lose sight of context, how to grasp the things left unsaid. No one taught me about schools of thought or even the ideologies meant to give depth to a mundane story. No one taught me aesthetics, language... All these, I discovered in high school while studying the classics, and broadened this knowledge at the Higher Teachers' Training College in Yaounde, from which I graduated as a French teacher. But I had already developed a habit. All my life, I would read the same way l had started off—intensely, passionately, instinctively—and sentence fragments would stick with me […] Books soothed my soul, made me angry, made me strong. They made me laugh and cry. They pushed me to examine existence with my own mind, to trust my intuition, to stretch my mind to perceive—against the backdrop of characters, nature, and plot—the intricate symphony of time that beams our being to the world.
As a child, reading made me feel less lonely, less insignificant, less vulnerable. As an adult, I developed enough discernment to understand that, while reading had not made me a better person, it had made me more levelheaded towards my own motivations, and freer.
”
”
Hemley Boum (Days Come and Go)
“
I flipped through Xuanzang's records almost 1400 years later, and thought that the written word was a fragile truth. His records were meticulous, but there was a vastness left unsaid. There were spools of thought that fell through the cracks and were swallowed by time. I hungered to know if he ever lost sight of is training, if on empty mountain roads loneliness crept into the sides of his mind till he thought he was mad, if in foreign marketplaces he succumbed to desire or greed or temper.
”
”
Mishi Saran
“
The sanction made the unsaid even more palpable, as if the thoughts had been waiting outside the room, and had at last been given permission to enter; now there was no denying their presence.
”
”
Neel Mukherjee (The Lives of Others)
“
Lonely girl, alone inside her head.
Her dreams slip through her fingers again.
Thoughts collide as she turns inside her bed.
Clawing around and around
Clawing around and around
"I'll be fine" she whispers in her sleep
The words are drowned inside of her pain
Failure again
Failure again
Looking for ways
but lost in the haze of
everlasting rolling days! Oh!
One more time!
One more time!
I'm gonna roll just one more time!
A voice in her head
A voice in her head
screaming all the words that were left unsaid!
"Will it ever end?"
"It may never end."
Nobody can tell what's lying ahead
So let me take your breath away
now.
Rolling Girl, and endless road ahead.
The days just blend, the colors entwine.
She sees the signs
but they pass her by again
Fading like a mirage
Fading like a mirage
"I'll be fine" she whispers in her wake.
The words are lost inside of her brain.
This is your chance, so take it or leave it
The only real failure is giving up here now
Even before you've tried! Oh!
One more time!
One more time!
She begs to be rolled just one more time!
I can't be done yet
Can't be done yet
Soundless are the words that were left unsaid!
"Will it ever end?"
"All in good time."
The tunnel in your head is nearing the end
So hold your breath just one last time
Now!
One last time!
One last time!
I'm gonna roll just one last time!
a voice in her head
voice in her head
Laughing out the words that were finally said!
"Will it ever end?"
"This will be the end."
All the misery will pay off in the end.
So take just one last breath and
let go.
”
”
wowaka
“
The thread between her and me stretched thinner and thinner. I feared over having a long list of lost chances and unsaid confessions. In the silence of my thoughts, I found myself wrapped in the restlessness of my heart. I was turning grey and blue in her absence.
”
”
Zeenat Ansari (Hang My Heart on the Shadows of Light: A Novel)
“
After all, things thought but left unsaid only fester inside you. So I let my brush run on like this for my own foolish solace; these pages deserve to be torn up and discarded, after all, and are not something others will ever see.
”
”
Yoshida Kenkō (A Cup of Sake Beneath the Cherry Trees)
“
After all' things thought but left unsaid only fester inside you. So I let my brush run on like this for my own foolish solace; these pages deserve to be torn up and discarded, after all, and are not something others will ever see.
”
”
Yoshida Kenkō (A Cup of Sake Beneath the Cherry Trees)
“
And the air was full of Thoughts and Things to Say. But at times like these, only the Small Things are ever said. Big Things lurk unsaid inside.
”
”
Arundhaty Roy
“
All lives that remain unlived have to be lived at some point.
All unwritten stories need to be completed at some point. All
dreams that remain unfulfilled deserve to be fulfilled at some
point. All unpaid debts ought to be repaid at some point,
including the cosmic ones. More so when there are no future
generations to carry them forward.
Let it all end with me. All stories unsaid, all verses unwritten,
all dreams unfulfilled, all lives unlived.
Let all the noises die forever. Let all voids be filled
permanently. Let there be no smiles that remain hesitant
anymore
”
”
Rasal (I Killed the Golden Goose : A COLLECTION OF THOUGHTS, THOUGHTLESSNESS, SILENCES, POEMS & SOME ‘SHOT’ STORIES)
“
The truth is I have my pride, and I feared my feelings. And so I left you with many things unsaid, and then I put what I thought was a cushion of days between us. Time to protect myself, to put all my armor on again. But then I realized that I'm not guaranteed anything. [...] I'm not promised the evening, let alone tomorrow.
”
”
Rebecca Ross (Divine Rivals (Letters of Enchantment, #1))
“
To report an Anarresti managerial debate in full would be difficult; it went very fast, several people often speaking at once, nobody speaking at great length, a good deal of sarcasm, a great deal left unsaid; the tone emotional, often fiercely personal; an end was reached, yet there was no conclusion. It was like an argument among brothers, or among thoughts in an undecided mind.
”
”
Ursula K. Le Guin (The Dispossessed (Hainish Cycle, #6))
“
Boosting your self-confidence is a key step in ridding your life of comparison as it gives you agency over your actions and ownership of your thoughts and behaviour. It allows you to leverage your own resources, no matter how plentiful or scarce they happen to be, and it ultimately allows you the impetus to use your inner power to work towards what is important to you. Without self-confidence, words go unsaid, ideas undeveloped and your time is often spent on the wrong things, with the wrong people, because we feel too scared to make a change or we hope the change will magically make itself. This naturally leads to a growing sense of discontent and in those conditions, comparison thrives, and the vicious circle continues.
”
”
Lucy Sheridan (The Comparison Cure: How to be less ‘them’ and more you)
“
Endo told me that when he first read this story, he thought that it was about regret, and how people leave many things undone and unsaid when they die, and that the burden of such grief -- for the living and the dead -- is quite possibly the greatest torture any person will ever undergo. But then, as we discussed the story, we decided that it was really about how the man had let go and come to accept that the wife was gone, though the process had made him ill for a while.
”
”
Marie Mutsuki Mockett (Where the Dead Pause, and the Japanese Say Goodbye: A Journey)
“
She dimpled a little at her own blunder, and then said guardedly, "And what would bring me into the law courts, I should like to know? The past is over and done with, and what is done can't be undone."
Master Nathaniel fixed her with a searching gaze, and, forgetting his assumed character, spoke as himself.
"Mistress Peppercorn," he said solemnly, "have you no pity for the dead, the dumb, helpless dead? You loved your father, I am sure. When a word from you might help to avenge him, as you going to leave that word unsaid? Who can say that the dead are not grateful for the loving thoughts of the living, and that they do not rest more quietly in their graves when they have been avenged? Have you no time or pity left for your dead father?
”
”
Hope Mirrlees (Lud-in-the-Mist)
“
In the lives of most of us, the list of unsaid things was, he thought, a long one.
”
”
Alexander McCall Smith (Pianos and Flowers: Brief Encounters of the Romantic Kind)
“
I left the room because, and only because, we had said all we could say. The unsaid words pushed roughly against the thoughts that we had no crafts to verbalize, and crowded the room to uneasiness.
”
”
Maya Angelou
“
Remembrance
A walk to remember
A talk to remember
The footsteps and esplanade to remember
The Queen and The Devotee to remember
A love to remember
An oversweet smile to remember
Beholders and perish leaves to remember
Unsaid hiding eyes to remember
A juncture to remember
Stepped towards me, asked, words to remember
Left-handed compliments to remember
Head over heels to remember
The gossamer, secret heart to remember
The soul memories to remember
Tensed face to remember
Disparity between tongue and words to remember
Wrong meaning to remember
Unthinkable thoughts to remember
Green and Blue colors to remember
The pen of Almighty to remember
A cup of tea, sips, laughter to remember
Dissolved care to remember
Effulgent eyes’ dullness to remember
That hard spirit smile to remember
Broken promises to remember
True dreamed journey to remember
Autumn of monarch's absence to remember
Monarch's presence, spring to remember
-In the end what matters is you, and your belief in yourself. Be a HUMAN in the multitude of sapiens. Be the one who comprehends the positivity in the abyss of dejected vibes.
NEW POETRY BOOK REVIEW
”
”
KIRTI KANGRA