the most important thing is lacking

however, there is one thing, and if you forgot to introduce this into your house, your home -the most important thing is lacking-it is: silence! silence -it is not a specific something, because it does not consist simply in the absence of speaking. no, silence is like the subdued lighting in a pleasant room, like the friendliness in a modest living room; it is not something one talks about, but it is there and exercises its beneficent power. silence is like the tone, the fundamental tone, which is not given prominence and is called the fundamental tone precisely because it lies at the base.

but this silence cannot be brought about in the same way, for example, as you send for someone who hangs drapes. no, if silence is to be brought about, it is a matter of your presence or of how you are in your house, your home. and when by your presence you have continually, year after year, brought about silence in your house, eventually this silence will also be there in your absence, a testimony to you, and finally, alas, a recollection of you!

-soren kierkegaard for self-examination