Patrick Ness Quotes

Sometimes you've got to keep your mouth shut.

Gossip is the currency of the discourse, so you should shut up about yourself. Never confess, never explain, never apologize, and never complain.

Whatever you say, say nothing.

A diplomat is a man who thinks twice before he says nothing.

We must distinguish between speaking to deceive and being silent to be reserved.

It's not so much knowing when to speak, when to pause.

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.

When you have nothing to say, say nothing.

Silence and tact may or may not be the same thing.

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

Not every truth is the better for showing its face undisguised; and often silence is the wisest thing for a man to heed.

You can't know too much, but you can say too much.

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

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.

If you're not sure of what to say, don't say anything.

Forbear to mention what thou canst not praise.

Let thy speech be better than silence, or be silent.

I've really learned to watch what I say.

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.

Everyone breathes in air, but it's a wise person who knows when to use that air to speak and when to exhale in silence.

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

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

A truth is to be known always, to be uttered sometimes.