Life & Wisdom Quote by Adrienne Rich

Rich doesn’t dress this up as a moral lesson; she frames it as a technology of power. The line snaps because it widens “lying” beyond the cartoon version - a spoken falsehood - into something more socially common and harder to prosecute: omission. Silence isn’t neutral here. It’s an action, a choice, a strategy. By pairing “words” with “silence,” Rich refuses the comforting idea that truth lives only in what we say; it also depends on what we refuse to name.

The intent carries the pressure of Rich’s feminist politics and her sense of how institutions maintain themselves. In families, workplaces, classrooms, and states, silence becomes a kind of compliance: the abuse not reported, the discrimination smoothed over, the “it’s complicated” used to avoid taking a side. Rich’s phrasing implicates the listener as much as the speaker. If lying can be silent, then everyone who benefits from an unspoken arrangement is potentially participating in it.

Subtext: language isn’t merely expressive; it’s ethical. You don’t get to outsource responsibility to “I didn’t say anything.” Silence can protect the vulnerable, yes, but Rich is aiming at the quieter, more corrosive version: silence that protects the status quo. The sentence is lean, almost legalistic, which makes it feel like a charge. It reads like a warning from someone who has watched truth get managed - not just by propaganda, but by polite restraint, social fear, and the everyday bargains people make to stay safe.