Plutarch Quotes

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

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)

Silence, when nothing need be said, is the eloquence of discretion.

Nothing is more like a wise man than a fool who holds his tongue.

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

It is a sad thing when men have neither the wit to speak well, nor the judgment to hold their tongues.

To be silent is sometimes an art, yet not so great a one as certain people would have us believe, who are wisest they are most silent.

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

I suppose that people, using themselves and each other so much by words, are at least consistent in attributing wisdom to a still tongue.

Silence is said to be golden, but the best fools the world has ever produced had nothing to say on the subject

Silence is one great art of conversation. He is not a fool who knows when to hold his tongue; and a person may gain credit for sense, eloquence, wit, who merely says nothing to lessen the opinion which others have of these qualities in themselves.

Knowing when to keep your mouth shut is invariably more important than opening it at the right time.

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

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

I often regret that I have spoken; never that I have been silent.

Tis better to sit there and look the fool, than to open your mouth and prove it.

He knows not when to be silent who knows not when to speak.

It is a great misfortune neither to have enough wit to talk well nor enough judgment to be silent.

It is a great misfortune not to possess sufficient wit to speak well, nor sufficient judgment to keep silent.

It is but a small merit to observe silence, but it is a grave fault to speak of matters on which we should be silent.

Knowledge is power only as long as you keep your mouth shut.

It is wise to be silent when occasion requires, and better than to speak, though never so well.

A sparing tongue is the greatest treasure among men.

Wise is the man who says what needs to be said, but not all that could be said.