Source: The Wise Man's Fear
“Life is fraught with opportunities to keep your mouth shut.”
“It is better to keep your mouth shut and appear stupid than to open it and remove all doubt.”
Cited as an example of "What Mark Twain Didn't Say" in Mark Twain by Geoffrey C. Ward, et al.
Misattributed
Variant: It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt.
“You are a shithead, Williamson. If you can't think on your feet you oughta keep your mouth shut.”
Glengarry Glen Ross (1993), Shelley Levene
“Success = 1 part work + 1 part play + 1 part keep your mouth shut”
Source: Ideas and Opinions
“You couldn’t keep your mouth shut? I’m calling you Glitterhair from now on. Or Talksalot.”
Source: The Exiled Queen
Source: The Diary of a Young Girl
“If you only ever read one book in your life… I highly recommend you keep your mouth shut.”
Attention Scum! (2001), How To Live (2005)
Said to Samuel J Woolf, Berlin, Summer 1929. Cited with additional notes in The Ultimate Quotable Einstein by Alice Calaprice and Freeman Dyson, Princeton UP (2010) p 230
1920s
Variant: If A is success in life, then A equals x plus y plus z. Work is x; y is play; and z is keeping your mouth shut.
“If you only ever read one book in your life I highly recommend… keeping your f***ing mouth shut.”
sic
Cut It Out (2004)
