Knowing When to Speak

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Oct 14, 1913

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 40, No. 40.

Knowing When to Speak

Will Carleton expressed an important thought in a quaint way, when he put in the mouth of an editor the question asked of an old farmer, concerning a son whom the father thought to make an editor: “Does he know just how much to know? Does he know how to not know too much?” And the same principle well applies in the matter of speaking,—Does he know just how much to say? and does he know how to not say too much? The tongue is a dangerous member. There would be far fewer quarrels and misunderstandings if such knowledge were general. Of course there are those to be found who will find fault with us whether we do or not do, whether we say or not say; but this we can do,—speak wisely and speak less frequently, and pursuing the even tenor of our way, if we can not say what we ought to say, know how to keep still.