Hi pirtykitty, and welcome to BYC!
I think that most hens are relatively quiet. They do make a bit of noise just before and after they lay an egg. (Roosters, of course, are a whole different story!)
As far as gentle hens, it seems to me that the bigger breeds tend to be more docile. My most gentle hens are my buff orpingtons. They are beautiful, fluffy birds, and they do lay well, unless they are broody. But they are broody often! If you want great egg production, you might want to avoid the breeds that are known to be broodies, such as buff orps.
My best egg layers are probably my sex links, and they are very nice hens. My Easter Eggers lay very well, too, and have the added bonus of laying blue/green eggs.
Heck, I could go on and on, telling you about how each breed I have has it's good points! Silly me! That won't really be helpful to you at all. Have you checked out Henderson's Chicken Breed Chart yet? If not, here's a link:
http://www.ithaca.edu/staff/jhenderson/chooks/chooks.html
It's a great place to start learning about the different breeds. If you click "FS" under the breed name, it will take you to Feathersite, and you can see pictures of the breed. Love the pretty pictures!
Anyway, good luck with your search, and when you find some breeds that seem interesting, you can ask people here what they think of them.
