On the Virtue of Silence

If you plant your feet firmly, steady as a mountain, your head will rise past the sky in majesty. Hold your tongue, you who know so much, for tomorrow no pen writes against the one who kept silent. Like the oyster, those who truly know the secret open their mouths only for a pearl. The one who talks too much has stuffed-up ears; advice takes hold only in someone who stays quiet. If you insist on talking breath after breath, you will find no sweetness in anyone's words. Do not speak before you have thought it through; you cannot cut a thread you have not yet spun. Those who weigh their words for right and wrong are better than the babblers quick with a reply. Speech is a perfection in a human being; do not diminish yourself with flawed talk. You will never be ashamed for speaking little; a measure of musk beats a whole heap of clay. Beware the fool who says one thing ten times over; like a wise man, say it once, and say it refined. You loosed a hundred arrows and every one missed; if you are clever, shoot just one, and shoot it straight. Why should a man say in private the kind of thing that, if it slipped out, would leave his face burning with shame? Do not gossip at length even before a wall; someone may be listening behind it. A secret is a prisoner locked inside your heart; take care the city gate is never left open. The wise man has sewn his mouth shut because he has seen how the candle burns from its tongue.