"Speech is silver, but silence is golden."
Silence, in a vast number of instances, is the indisputable proof of the empire that one has over oneself.
To be able to keep quiet and to close one's lips until the moment when reflection has enabled us to discipline our too-violent emotions, is a quality that belongs only to those who have obtained the mastery over themselves.
The weak become excited, indulge in protests, and expend themselves in angry denunciations that use up the energy they should retain for active measures.
The man of resolution is most careful not to allow it to be known at what point he has been wounded. He keeps silence and reflects.
Resolves form within his mind and, when he at last is ready to speak, it is to utter some firm decision or to put forward arguments that are unanswerable.
To tell the truth, those who instantly and noisily voice their antagonisms, who, under the sting of a hurt to their vanity indulge in threats of violence, are actually dangerous.
Their accusations, dictated by anger and heightened by the sense of their own inferiority, are always characterized by impotence.
They make people smile, provoke perhaps a little pity, but never cause any fear.
They are like the toy guns of children, which have the air of being most deadly weapons, but which are constructed of such fragile materials that a vigorous blow will cause them to fall to pieces.