Silent people are dangerous; others are not so.
Il n'en est pas ainsi des autres.
Original text (French)
Original text (French)
Man is so made that when anything fires his soul, impossibilities vanish.
Dressed in the lion's skin, the ass spread terror far and wide.
Beware, as long as you live, of judging people by appearances.
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To sin by silence, when we should protest,
Makes cowards out of men.
Blessed is the man who, having nothing to say, abstains from giving us wordy evidence of the fact.
There are times when good words are to be left unsaid out of esteem for silence.
Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Jean de La Fontaine (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.