Niccolò Machiavelli on talking

Rome remained free for four hundred years and Sparta eight hundred, although their citizens were armed all that time; but many other states that have been disarmed have lost their liberties in less than forty years.

There are three kinds of intelligence: one kind understands things for itself, the other appreciates what others can understand, the third understands neither for itself nor through others. This first is excellent, the second good, and the third useless.

For the great majority of mankind are satisfied with appearances as though they were realities. and are often more influenced by things that seem than by those that are.

A great many of those who ‘debunk’ traditional…values have in the background values of their own which they believe to be immune from the debunking process.

C. S. Lewis1898–1963The Abolition of Man

• Debate

It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt.

Mark Twain1835–1910

If A is a success in life, than A equals x plus y plus z. Work is x; y is play; and z is keeping your mouth shut.

Albert Einstein1879–1955

• Success