Malcolm Forbes Quotes

If it requires great tact to speak to the purpose, it requires no less to know when to be silent.

Half of seeming clever is keeping your mouth shut at the right times.

Knowing when to say something and when not to say something is important.

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.

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

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.

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

The wise man knows when to keep silent. Only the fool tells all he knows.

Have you ever heard the phrase, it is better to keep your mouth closed and have people wonder if you are stupid than open it and remove all doubt? (Hakim al Harbi)

Prudent is he who can keep silent that part of truth which may be untimely, and by not speaking it, does not spoil the truth of what he said.

When Demaratus was asked whether he held his tongue because he was a fool or for want of words, he replied, "A fool cannot hold his tongue.

All truth is not to be told at all times.

Blessed is the man, who having nothing to say, abstains from giving wordy evidence of the fact.

One of the most beneficial things I've ever learned is how to keep my mouth shut.

When you have nothing to say, say nothing.

Diplomacy is more than saying or doing the right things at the right time, it is avoiding saying or doing the wrong things at any time.

My best attribute is knowing when not to answer stupid questions.

It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt.

A man is known by the silence he keeps.

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.