Leo Rosten Quotes

We have two ears and one mouth so that we can listen twice as much as we speak.

Wisdom is the reward you get for a lifetime of listening when you'd have preferred to talk.

We have two ears and one tongue so that we would listen more and talk less.

It is the province of knowledge to speak, and it is the privilege of wisdom to listen.

Silence is true wisdom's best reply.

There is a time to be quiet and a time to talk.

Having two ears and one tongue, we should listen twice as much as we speak.

Don't talk too much or too soon.

All we have to do is listen. The Good Lord gave us two ears and only one mouth, my dear white-headed mother used to say.

He who does not know how to be silent will not know how to speak.

An old Zen rule of thumb is not to answer until one has been asked three times.

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

True wisdom listens more, talks less and can get along with all types of people.

The world would be happier if men had the same capacity to be silent that they have to speak.

Somewhere we know that without silence words lose their meaning, that without listening speaking no longer heals, that without distance closeness cannot cure.

A minute of thought is greater than an hour of talk.

Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice.

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

The reason why we have two ears and only one mouth is that we may listen the more and talk the less.

In this job, I've found the less I talk, the better.

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

Often silence is the wisest thing for a man to heed.

The things you do not have to say make you rich. Saying things you do not have to say weakens your talk. Hearing things you do not need to hear dulls your hearing. And things you know before you hear them — those are you, those are why you are in the world.

Silence is often the best thing to say.

If we are silent when we should speak, we are not living the Discipline of silence. If we speak when we should be silent, we again miss the mark.