{"collection":"Islam","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/isl/arw/arw25.htm","path":"isl/arw/arw25.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/isl/arw/arw25.htm","text":"Arabian Wisdom, by John Wortabet, [1913]\nWise men are silent.\nSilence is often more eloquent than words.\nBe not hasty with your tongue. If words are silver, silence is gold.\nNot all that is known should be said.\nSilence is a wise thing, but they who observe it are few.\nWhen the mind becomes large speech becomes little.\nRestrain your tongue from saying anything but what is good.\nAn unguarded word may do you great harm.\nA man who talks much is open to much blame.\nThe most faulty of men are they that are most loquacious in matters which do not concern them.\nTo guard his tongue is one of the best traits in a man's character.\nMan is saved from much evil if he guard his tongue.\nThe tongue is a lion which must be chained, and a sharp sword which must be sheathed.\nNothing on earth is so deserving of a long imprisonment as the tongue.\nBeware of saying anything of which you may be ashamed.\nIt is better to regret a thing which you did not say than a thing which you did say.\nA slip of the foot is safer than a slip of the tongue. A false step may break a bone which can be set, but a slip of the tongue cannot be undone.\nA thrust of the tongue is sharper than the thrust of a lance.\nA word may cause much trouble, destroy a home, or open a grave.\nA great tree grows out of a small seed.\nThe difference between loquacity and silence is like the difference between the noisy frog and the silent whale.\nWisdom is made up of ten parts\u2014nine of which are silence, and the tenth is brevity of language.\nA man conceals his ignorance by his silence.\nHe who says what he should not say, will have to hear what he would not like to hear.\nHe who talks much does little.\nWhat is said at night the day blots out.","title":"Arabian Wisdom: Silence, Guarded Speech","type":"page"}