Jacula Prudentum (1651)
“The Wise are silent, the Foolish speak, and children are thus led astray.”
The Rubaiyat (1120)
“No man was more foolish when he had not a pen in his hand, or more wise when he had.”
On Oliver Goldsmith1780
Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), Vol IV
“Erasmus: Madness and Rivalry,” Giving Offense: Essays on Censorship (1996), p. 94
“The heart of a fool is in his mouth, but the mouth of a wise man is in his heart.”
“Society speaks and all men listen, mountains speak and wise men listen.”
Frequently attributed to Muir without source. An extensive search of Muir's published and unpublished writings found several sharp and cogent observations concerning society (see above) but not this one.
Misattributed
Source: Prometheus Bound, lines 953–954 (tr. Elizabeth Barrett Browning)
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
“Converse with men makes sharp the glittering wit,
But God to man doth speak in solitude.”
Sonnet, Highland Solitude; reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 729.
Second Week, First Day, Part iv.
La Seconde Semaine (1584)
