“Better to say nothing and be thought a fool,” said Amarelle, “than to interfere in the business of wizards and remove all doubt.”

Section 1.9 <!-- p. 28 -->
The Crosswicks Journal, A Circle of Quiet (1972)
Context: My husband is my most ruthless critic. … Sometimes he will say, "It's been said better before." Of course. It's all been said better before. If I thought I had to say it better than anyone else, I'd never start. Better or worse is immaterial. The thing is that it has to be said; by me; ontologically. We each have to say it, to say it in our own way. Not of our own will, but as it comes through us. Good or bad, great or little: that isn't what human creation is about. It is that we have to try; to put it down in pigment, or words, or musical notations, or we die.

Source: Storm Front

Variously attributed to Lincoln, Elbert Hubbard, Mark Twain, Benjamin Franklin and Socrates
Misattributed
Variant: It is better to be silent and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt.

Variant: Better a witty fool, than a foolish wit.
Source: Twelfth Night

Source: Pursuit of Honor

As quoted in Robertson The Hispanic American historical review, Vol 16 (1936), p. 325
Variant translation: Experiment is the mother of realities, removes our errors and solves our doubts [and by the same method of experiment] we are able to protect ourselves against the delusions and fables that some ancient cosmographers have left us in writing.
As quoted in Welch Europe's discovery of South Africa (1937), p. 95
cf. Esmeraldo de situ orbis, Book IV, ch. I, p. 152: Craramente se mostra ser falso o que escrevêram; poys debaixo da mesma equinocial há tanta habitaçam de jente, quanto teemos sabida e praticada; e como quer que a experiencia he madre das cousas, por ella soubemos rradicalmente a verdade.

Source: Fantasy Lover