Reticence Quotes
15 quotes
"Never miss a good chance to shut up."
"Never complain, never explain. Resist the temptation to defend yourself or make excuses."
"Silence does not always mark wisdom."
"Nothing is as irritating to a shy man as a confident girl."
"It is always assumed by the empty-headed, who chatter about themselves for want of something better, that people who do not discuss their affairs openly must have something to hide."
"Among my most prized possessions are words that I have never spoken."
"There should be a little gap between you and your friends, though you'll miss their companionship and you'll also miss their disrespect."
"Keep your problems to yourself, if its too much for you, kill it slowly till it disappears from your life."
"I don't think..." then you shouldn't talk, said the Hatter."
"Silence is only frightening to people who are compulsively verbalizing."
William S. Burroughs, The Job: Interviews with William S. Burroughs
"The post on her left was occupied by Mr. Erskine of Treadley, an old gentleman of considerable charm and culture, who had fallen, however, into bad habits of silence, having, as he explained once to Lady Agatha, said everything that he had to say before he was thirty."
"Reticence was clearly a national characteristic, even if the other person spoke French."
"Many times in life I've regretted the things I've said without thinking. But I've never regretted the things I said nearly as much as the words I left unspoken."
"Oh, tell me, who first declared, who first proclaimed that man only does nasty things because he does not know his own real interests; and that if he were enlightened, if his eyes were opened to his real normal interests, man would at once cease to do nasty things, would at once become good and noble because, being enlightened and understanding his real advantage, he would see his own advantage in the good and nothing else… . Oh, the babe! Oh, the pure, innocent child!"
"You know you're about as forthcoming as a mime."