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He who has knowledge spares his words,
And a man of understanding is of a calm spirit.
Proverbs 17:27
Even a fool is counted wise when he holds his peace.
Proverbs 17:28
In the multitude of words sin is not lacking,
But he who restrains his lips is wise.
Proverbs 10:19
He who guards his mouth preserves his life,
But he who opens wide his lips shall have destruction.
Proverbs 13:3
Whoever guards his mouth and tongue
Keeps his soul from troubles.
Proverbs 21:23
The heart of the righteous studies how to answer,
But the mouth of the wicked pours forth evil.
Proverbs 15:28
A fool's mouth is his destruction,
And his lips are the snare of his soul.
Proverbs 18:7
The discretion of a man makes him slow to anger,
And his glory is to overlook a transgression.
Proverbs 19:11
A fool vents all his feelings,
But a wise man holds them back.
Proverbs 29:11
Do you see a man hasty in his words?
There is more hope for a fool than for him.
Proverbs 29:20
For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. A
good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth
good things, and an evil man out of the evil treasure brings
forth evil things. But I say to you that for every idle word
men may speak, they will give account of it in the day of
judgment. For by your words you will be justified, and by
your words you will be condemned.
Jesus (Matthew 12:34-37)
He can never speak well, who knows not how to hold his peace.
Plutarch
True silence is the rest of the mind, and is to the spirit what
sleep is to the body, nourishment and refreshment. It is a
great virtue; it covers folly, keeps secrets, avoids disputes,
and prevents sin.
Penn
Silence, when nothing need be said, is the eloquence of
discretion.
Bovee
Speech is great, but silence is greater.
Carlyle
He who, silent, loves to be with us, and who loves us in our
silence, has touched one of the keys that ravish hearts.
Lavater
A good word is an easy obligation; but not to speak ill
requires only our silence, which costs us nothing.
Tillotson
The temple of our purest thoughts is silence.
Sarah J. Hale
Let us be silent that we may hear the whispers of the gods.
Emerson
It is the wise head that makes the still tongue.
W. J. Lucas
Most men speak when they do not know how to be silent. He is
wise who knows how to hold his peace. Tie your tongue lest it
be wanton and luxuriate; keep it within the banks; a rapidly
flowing river soon collects mud.
Ambrose
Fellows who have no tongues are often all eyes and ears.
Haliburton
A silent man is easily reputed wise. The unknown is always
wonderful. A man who suffers none to see him in the common
jostle and undress of life easily gathers round him a
mysterious veil of unknown sanctity, and men honor him for a
saint.
F. W. Robertson
Silence is the ornament and safeguard of the ignorant.
Silence is the safest respondent for all the contradiction that
arises from impertinence, vulgarity, or envy.
Zimmermann
The main reason why silence is so efficacious an element of
repute is, first, because of the magnification which
proverbially belongs to the unknown; and, secondly, because
silence provokes no man's envy, and wounds no man's self-love.
Bulwer
Silence in times of suffering is the best.
Dryden
The unspoken word never does harm.
Kossuth
Silence and reserve suggest latent power. What some men think
has more effect than what others say.
Chesterfield
Nothing is so good for an ignorant man as silence; if he were
sensible of this he would not be ignorant.
Saadi
If you would pass for more than your value, say little. It is
easier to look wise than to talk wisely.
The more a man desirous to pass at a value above his worth,
can, by dignified silence, contrast with the garrulity of
trivial minds, the more will the world give him credit for the
wealth he does not possess.
Bulwer
A judicious silence is always better than truth spoken without
charity.
De Sales
Silence is a figure of speech, unanswerable, short, cold, but
terribly severe.
Theodore Parker
A judicious reticence is hard to learn, but it is one of the
great lessons of life.
Chesterfield
If thou desire to be held wise, be so wise as to hold thy
tongue.
Quarles
There is a silence, the child of love, which expresses
everything, and proclaims more loudly than the tongue is able
to do.
Alfieri
A person that would secure to himself great deference will,
perhaps, gain his point by silence as effectually as by
anything he can say.
Shenstone
As men of sense and genius say much in few words, so on the
other hand the weak and foolish speak much and say little.
Rochefoucauld
Talkers and futile persons are commonly vain and credulous
withal, for he that talketh what he knoweth will also talk what
he knoweth not; therefore set it down that a habit of secrecy
is both politic and moral.
Bacon
Blessed is the man who, having nothing to say, abstains from
giving wordy evidence of the fact.
George Elliot
If any man think it a small matter to bridle his tongue, he is
much mistaken; for it is a point to be silent when occasion
requires, and better than to speak, though never so well.
Plutarch
It is only reason that teaches silence; the heart teaches us to
speak.
Richter
It is better to be silent, or to say things of more value than
silence. Sooner throw a pearl at hazard than an idle or
useless word; and do not say a little in many words, but a
great deal in a few.
Pythagoras
None preaches better than the ant, and she says nothing.
Franklin
I think the first virtue is to restrain the tongue; he
approaches nearest to the gods who knows how to be silent, even
though he is in the right.
Cato
Silence never shows itself to so great an advantage as when it
is made the reply to calumny and defamation.
Addison
Where the river is deepest it makes the least sound.
Italian Proverb
Some men envelop themselves in such an impenetrable cloak of
silence, that the tongue will afford us no symptoms of the
mind. Such taciturnity, indeed, is wise if they are fools, but
foolish if they are wise, and the only method to form a
judgment of these mutes, is narrowly to observe when, where,
and how they smile.
Silence is the safest course for any man to adopt who distrusts
himself.
Rochefoucauld
Euripides was wont to say that silence was an answer to a wise
man; but we seem to have a greater occasion for it in our
dealing with fools and unreasonable persons; for men of
breeding and sense will be satisfied with reason and fair
words.
Plutarch
Of all virtues, Zeno made choice of silence; for by it, said
he, I hear other men's imperfections, and conceal my own.
A man's profundity may keep him from opening on a first
interview, and his caution on a second; but I should suspect
his emptiness, if he carried on his reserve to a third.
Colton
Silence is a virtue in those who are deficient in
understanding.
Bouhours
If the prudence of reserve and decorum dictates silence in some
circumstances, in others prudence of a higher order may justify
us in speaking our thoughts.
Burke
Silence is the highest wisdom of a fool as speech is the
greatest trial of a wise man. If thou wouldst be known as
wise, let thy words show thee so; if thou doubt thy words, let
thy silence feign thee so. It is not a greater point of wisdom
to discover knowledge than to hide ignorance.
Quarles
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