“We should observe the place, the occasion, the temper in which we find the person who listens to us, for if there is much art in speaking to the purpose, there is no less in knowing when to be silent. There is an eloquent silence which serves to approve or to condemn, there is a silence of discretion and of respect. In a word, there is a tone, an air, a manner, which renders everything in conversation agreeable or disagreeable, refined or vulgar.”

—  François de La Rochefoucauld

Reflections on Various Subjects (1665–1678), V. On Conversation

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François de La Rochefoucauld156
French author of maxims and memoirs 1613–1680

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