QuoteProject
Go another step. Try to live one entire day without words at all. Do it not as a law, but as an experiment. Note your feelings of helplessness and excessive dependence upon words to communicate. Try to find new ways to relate to tohers that are not dependent upon words. Enjoy, savor the day. Learn from it.
Richard J. Foster
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

The quote encourages experiencing a day without using words to understand our dependence on verbal communication and explore alternative connections.

Richard J. Foster's quote invites us to embark on a unique experiment by spending an entire day without speaking. This exercise is not meant to impose a strict rule but rather to foster self-awareness about our reliance on language as a communication tool. By immersing ourselves in this practice, we can discover other ways to connect with others and deeply reflect on our feelings of dependency on words, ultimately enhancing our appreciation for non-verbal communication and the unspoken connections we share with the world around us.

Themes

CommunicationSilenceSelf-DiscoveryDependencyExpression

In practice

Example use cases

During a mindfulness retreat, you can share this quote to encourage participants to embrace silence.

More from Richard J. Foster

Jesus Christ and all the writers of the New Testament call us to break free of mammon lust and live in joyous trust...They point us toward a way of living in which everything we have we receive as a gift, and everything we have is cared for by God, and everything we have is available to others when it is right and good. This reality frames the heart of Christian simplicity. It is the means of liberation and power to do what is right and to overcome the forces of fear and avarice.
Richard J. FosterRead
Love, not anger, brought Jesus to the cross. Golgotha came as a result of God's great desire to forgive, not his reluctance. Jesus knew that by his vicarious suffering he could actually absorb all the evil of humanity and so heal it, forgive it, redeem it.
Richard J. FosterRead
Humility, as we all know, is one of those virtues that is never gained by seeking it. The more we pursue it the more distant it becomes. To think we have it is sure evidence that we don't.
Richard J. FosterRead
When we determine to dwell on the good and excellent things in life, we will be so full of those things that they will tend to swallow our problems.
Richard J. FosterRead
The Spiritual Disciplines are things that we do. We must never lose sight of this fact. It is one thing to talk piously about 'the solitude of the heart,' but if that does not somehow work its way into our experience, then we have missed the point of the Disciplines. We are dealing with actions, not merely states of mind.
Richard J. FosterRead
Each activity of daily life in which we stretch ourselves on behalf of others is a prayer in action.
Richard J. FosterRead

Similar quotes

There is no single face in nature, because every eye that looks upon it, sees it from its own angle. So every man's spice-box seasons his own food.
Zora Neale HurstonRead
To tax the larger incomes at a higher percentage than the smaller, is to lay a tax on industry and economy; to impose a penalty on people for having worked harder and saved more than their neighbors.
John Stuart MillRead
Though thousand times a thousand in battle one may conquer, yet should one conquer just oneself, one is the greatest conqueror.
Gautama BuddhaRead
Africa has become the big game of the nation hunters. Today, Africa looms as the greatest commercial, industrial and political prize in the world.
Marcus GarveyRead
I was not content to believe in a personal devil and serve him, in the ordinary sense of the word. I wanted to get hold of him personally and become his chief of staff.
Aleister CrowleyRead
The proper role of government is exactly what John Stuart Mill said in the middle of the 19th century in "On Liberty." The proper role of government is to prevent other people from harming an individual. Government, he said, never has any right to interfere with an individual for that individual's own good.
Milton FriedmanRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.