"Speaking distracts one while silence and work recollects and strengthens their spirit. Once a person knows what has been told him for his benefit, he no longer needs to hear or speak, but to put it into practice, silently and carefully and in humility. He must not then go in search of new things that serve only to satisfy the appetite outwardly, although they are not able to satisfy it, and leave the spirit weak and empty without interior virtue. Hence it follows that neither the former nor the latter is of profit. We shall awaken to find our labor and work done in the wrong way, and thinking that we were carrying a lighted flame, we shall discover that it has gone out. Because by blowing, in our opinion, to keep it lighted, we perhaps did more to extinguish it. I say then, so that this might not happen and that our spirit be preserved and there is no better remedy than to suffer, to do, and to be silent, and to close the senses through the inclination toward and practice of solitude and their forgetfulness of all creatures and happenings. Even though the whole world crumbles, never, whether in adversity or prosperity, cease to quiet your heart with deep love so as to suffer what terror comes along. For perfection is so singularly important and the delight of the spirit is so high priced that all of this is hardly enough to obtain it. It is impossible to advance without doing and suffering virtuously all enveloped in silence. All enveloped in silence..."

-St John O the Cross

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