Affurisms. From Josh Billings: His Sayings (1865)
Comme c’est le caractère des grands esprits de faire entendre en peu de paroles beaucoup de choses, les petits esprits au contraire ont le don de beaucoup parler, et de ne rien dire.
Maxim 142.
Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims (1665–1678)
Chap. 11, "The Fat Man"
Dialogue between the characters Kasper Gutman (the "fat man") and Sam Spade.
Source: The Maltese Falcon (1930)
Context: "We begin well, sir," the fat man purred … "I distrust a man that says when. If he's got to be careful not to drink too much it's because he's not to be trusted when he does. … Well, sir, here's to plain speaking and clear understanding. … You're a close-mouthed man?"
Spade shook his head. "I like to talk."
"Better and better!" the fat man exclaimed. "I distrust a close-mouthed man. He generally picks the wrong time to talk and says the wrong things. Talking's something you can't do judiciously unless you keep in practice."
“People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care”
Variant: No one cares how much you know, until they know how much you care
“Talk low, Talk slow, and Don't say too much.”
Variant: Talk low, talk slow and don't say too much.
As quoted in "The Man in the Pirate Uniform: Clemente is Spectacular" https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=zcxRAAAAIBAJ&sjid=NGwDAAAAIBAJ&pg=7274%2C5131234 by Myron Cope, in The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (Tuesday, August 23, 1960), p. 29
Other, <big><big>1960s</big></big>, <big>1960</big>
“I pretty much don't care what the papers say about me.”
Sunday Times interview (1980s)
“When the long bygone Lee Po wanted to say something, he could do it with only a few words.”
“Just a Few Words,” p. 62
The Sun Watches the Sun (1999), Sequence: “A Stone and a Word”
Henry J. Heinz in his diary (1875), cited in: Robert C. Alberts (1973), The good provider: H. J. Heinz and his 57 varieties. p. 24
