Robert MacNeil Quotes

I won this award for keeping my mouth shut, so I think I'll do it again now.

Dishonesty is not the only alternative to honesty. There is also the highly underrated virtue of shutting up.

Let there be a door to thy mouth, that it may be shut when need arises, and let it be carefully barred, that none may rouse thy voice to anger, and thou pay back abuse with abuse.

The time comes upon every public man when it is best for him to keep his lips closed.

Remember not only to say the right thing in the right place, but far more difficult still, to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment.

He that would live in peace and at ease must not speak all he knows or all he sees.

It is well for one to know more than he says.

An Englishman's never so natural as when he's holding his tongue.

Be sure your wisest words are those you do not say.

You know, I have found out in the course of a long public life that the things I did not say never hurt me.

A man is known by the silence he keeps.

Talk low, talk slow and don't say too much.

It illustrates vividly my incapacity of knowing when to be silent and when to speak.

Forbear to mention what thou canst not praise.

To know how to hide one's ability is great skill.

Never seem wiser, nor more learned, than the people you are with. Wear your learning, like your watch, in a private pocket: and do not merely pull it out and strike it; merely to show that you have one.

Sometimes you usually know the point where to keep your mouth shut.

I've learned to keep your mouth shut even when something bad is going on. You never know how someone is going to take something you say. You have to bite the bullet.

Discretion is a very valuable asset.

Sometimes you've got to keep your mouth shut.

I don't like to talk about things till someone asks about them.

Even the wordiest of men know there's a time to button it.

Never miss an opportunity to keep your damn mouth shut.

I don't get nearly enough credit in life for the things I manage not to say.

Sometimes you have to know when to shut the f - - up.