Among the epigrams of Palladas may be found the original of a modern saw, the purport of which is that an ignoramus, by maintaining a prudent silence, may pass for a wise man:—
Πᾶς τις ἀπαιδευτος φρονιμώτατος ἔστι σιωπῶν.
Shakspeare uses it in the Merchant of Venice:—
O my Antonio, I do know of these
That therefore only are reputed wise
For saying nothing.—Act I. Sc. 1.
We come crying hither:
Thou knowest the first time that we smell the air
We wawl and cry.——