“A close mouth catches no flies.”
Miguel de Cervantes (1547–1616) Spanish novelist, poet, and playwright
Source: Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Part I, Book III, Ch. 11.
“215. Into a mouth shut flies flie not.”
Variant of the Sumerian proverb: Flies enter an open mouth. http://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/proverbs/t.6.1.03.html <br class="br">Jacula Prudentum (1651)
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George Herbert216
Welsh-born English poet, orator and Anglican priest 1593–1633Related quotes
G. K. Chesterton (1874–1936) English mystery novelist and Christian apologist
Original quote:
For my friend said that he opened his intellect as the sun opens the fans of a palm tree, opening for opening's sake, opening infinitely for ever. But I said that I opened my intellect as I opened my mouth, in order to shut it again on something solid. I was doing it at the moment. And as I truly pointed out, it would look uncommonly silly if I went on opening my mouth infinitely, for ever and ever.
The Extraordinary Cabman, one of many essays collected in Tremendous Trifles (1909)
Misattributed
“Life is fraught with opportunities to keep your mouth shut.”
Winston S. Churchill (1874–1965) Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
“Never miss a chance… to keep your mouth shut.”
Robert Newton Peck book A Day No Pigs Would Die
Source: A Day No Pigs Would Die
“Half of seeming clever is keeping your mouth shut at the right times.”
Patrick Rothfuss book The Wise Man's Fear
Source: The Wise Man's Fear
“I am so wise I had my mouth sewn shut.”
John Berryman (1914–1972) American poet
“The first thing a psychologist learns is to keep her mouth shut around laymen.”
James Blish (1921–1975) American author
Source: …And All the Stars a Stage (1971; [serialized in 1960]), Chapter 13 (p. 180)
“The author must keep his mouth shut when his work starts to speak.”
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German philosopher, poet, composer, cultural critic, and classical philologist
“Shut up, sit down, zip your mouth. Know that I am God.”
Glenn Beck (1964) U.S. talk radio and television host
Okay. When we have the chance, if this stuff all falls into place, that The Blaze is going through right now, I'm telling you — miracles, absolute miracles.
2014-02-12
The Glenn Beck Program
Radio, quoted in * 2014-02-12
Beck: God Told Me To Sit Down And Shut Up Because He Has 'Absolute Miracles' In Store For The Blaze
Kyle
Mantyla
RightWingWatch
http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/beck-god-told-me-sit-down-and-shut-because-he-has-absolute-miracles-store-blaze
2014-02-05
2010s, 2014
“It is better to keep your mouth shut and appear stupid than to open it and remove all doubt.”
Mark Twain (1835–1910) American author and humorist
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.