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Silence is better than unmeaning words. (Sextus 366)

λόγον περὶ θεοῦ σιγᾶν ἄμεινον ἢ προπετῶς διαλέγεσθαι. (In talk about God, silence is better than reckless words.) (Sextus 366)

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Notes from Wikiquote

As quoted in Encyclopaedia Americana (1832) Vol. X, p. 445 edited by Francis Lieber, E. Wigglesworth, and Thomas Gamaliel Bradford

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Silence

More quotes by Pythagoras

Let no one persuade you by word or deed to do or say whatever is not best for you.

Rest satisfied with doing well, and leave others to talk of you as they please.

Number is the ruler of forms and ideas, and the cause of gods and daemons.

Assist a man in raising a burden; but do not assist him in laying it down.

Remind yourself that all men assert that wisdom is the greatest good, but that there are few who strenuously seek out that greatest good.

Pythagorean Ethical Sentences From Stobæus (1904)

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To sin by silence, when we should protest,
Makes cowards out of men.

Ella Wheeler Wilcox New Thought Pastels (1913)

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

George Eliot

There are times when good words are to be left unsaid out of esteem for silence.

Benedict of Nursia

I think television has betrayed the meaning of democratic speech, adding visual chaos to the confusion of voices. What role does silence have in all this noise?

Federico Fellini I'm a Born Liar (2003)

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Pythagoras (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.