It’s one thing to spend time in silence—it is quite another to be silent ourselves.  

Do you ever find it interesting that when the police arrest somebody on suspicion of a crime, they don’t tell them they have the right to speak freely—which they do—but instead inform them that they have the right to remain silent?

Imagine that – reminding somebody they have a right not to talk!  While the legal reason for the warning has more to do with the Constitutional right to counsel, the practical reason for it is simple—most of the time when suspects talk, they only get themselves into more trouble, not less.  They tend to say foolish things that only make matters worse.

Now, even though police have been telling that to suspects in America only since the 1970’s, it’s actually advice that mankind has needed, well, from the very beginning.

Proverbs tells us that “Whoever guards his mouth preserves his life; he who opens wide his lips comes to ruin.”  Epictetus had similar advice: “Keep silence for the most part, and speak only when you must, and then briefly.”  And Plutarch went so far as to claim that, “Silence at the proper season is wisdom, and better than any speech.”

It is easy to think of silence as simply the absence of sound…but do we understand it as wisdom in the proper season? Think of that: we can be wise by not saying anything.

After all, how many people do you know, of whom you think, “he doesn’t talk enough” or “I wish she’d speak up more often and use more words”?  Almost nobody, right?

I know I talk too much—I feel the need to speak too often and too quickly, and I fail to appreciate the wisdom of silence at the proper season.  Given that it is part of the human condition, I imagine that’s probably true for you as well…

So perhaps we shouldn’t wait until we’re arrested by the police to remind ourselves that we have the right to remain silent.  For as Proverbs also tells us:

“Even a fool who keeps silent is considered wise; when he closes his lips, he is deemed intelligent.”

On that note, I think I’ll stop talking now…

Have a wonderful day.