It’s better to keep your mouth shut …. — By Tommy Purser

“It’s better to keep your mouth shut and let people think you’re a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt.”
That’s a saying I’ve heard since I was just a boy.
No one’s quite sure who originated that little ditty but lots of people ascribe it to either Abraham Lincoln or Mark Twain.
There are lots of similar versions like:
“Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and to remove all doubt.”
“It’s better to keep your mouth shut and appear stupid than open it and remove all doubt.”
There’s a biblical proverb that expresses a similar idea, namely Proverbs 17:28. Here is the New International Version followed by the King James Version:
“Even a fool is thought wise if he keeps silent, and discerning if he holds his tongue.”
“Even a fool, when he holdeth his peace, is counted wise: and he that shutteth his lips is esteemed a man of understanding.”
And there’s these:
“It is better to remain silent at the risk of being thought a fool, than to talk and remove all doubt of it.”
“Silence is the virtue of those who are not wise.”
“Silence is wisdom and gets a man friends.”
“Silence is wisdom when speaking is folly.”
That one I really like.
St. Francis de Sales is credited with saying, “It is better to remain silent than to speak the truth ill-humoredly, and spoil an excellent dish by covering it with bad sauce.”
And, finally, “It is better to keep your mouth shut and be thought a fool than to open your mouth and prove it.”
What brings all this to mind?
Well, recently I did something I don’t do very often — I logged onto Facebook for some relatively sane reason and, as always, was struck by the insanity that looms there.
Some people who spit our their brains on Facebook would be well advised to just put their hands in their pockets and think about stupid things to say, rather than let their fingers do their talking on a keyboard and expose their inanities for all to see.
Hmmm. Somewhere in that thought might be a saying worth remembering.