the power of silence

We first Americans mingle with our pride an exceptional humility. Spiritual arrogance is foreign to our nature and teaching. We never claimed that the power of articulate speech is proof of superiority over "dumb creation"; on the other hand, it is to us a perilous gift.

We believe profoundly in silence - the sign of a perfect equilibrium. Silence is the absolute poise or balance of body, mind, and spirit. Those who can preserve their self-hood ever calm and unshaken by the storms of existence - not a leaf, as it were, astir on the tree; not a ripple upon the shining pool - those, in the mind of the person of nature, posses the ideal attitude and conduct for life.

- Wisdom of the Native Americans, edited by Kent Nerburn