a little silence goes a long way

Silence is the only phenomenon today that is "useless." It does not fit into the world of profit and utility; it simply is. It seems to have no other purpose; it cannot be exploited.

All the other great phenomena have been appropriated by the world of profit and utility. Even the space between heaven and earth has become a mere cavity for aeroplanes to travel through. Water and fire have been absorbed by the world of profit; they are only noticed in so far as they are parts of this world; they have lost their independent existence.

Silence, however, stands outside the world of profit and utility; it cannot be exploited for profit; you cannot get anything out of it. It is "unproductive." Therefore, it is regarded as valueless.

Yet there is more help and healing in silence than in all the "useful things." Purposeless, unexploitible silence suddenly appears at the side of the all-too purposeful, and frightens us by its very purposelessness. It interferes with the regular "how" of the purposeful. It strengthens the untouchable, it lessens the damage inflicted by exploitation. It makes things whole again, by taking them back from the world of dissipation into the world of wholeness. It gives things something of its own holy uselessness, for that is what silence is: holy uselessness.

- Max Picard, German-Swiss writer and philosopher, from his book, "The World of Silence"