“Never miss a good chance to shut up.” – Will Rogers 

Seemingly harsh, it is sound advice.  An old half remembered adage states something to the effect that God created each of us with two eyes and two ears but only one mouth.  This being a nature fact, we should use each of these in that proportion.   Even in this modern digital age, there is a lot of wisdom to the core principle here.

Most of our time should be spent in listening.  More precisely, listening to understand.  Even when you or I have good ideas, if we allow others the opportunity to speak, it is most likely that someone will eventually get across our ideas even perhaps better than we ourselves have thought them.  Remember, it’s not important really to be the first to say it.   Only that good ideas percolate to the top and are listened to once these are there.

Be it the work place or at home, it is often better to not speak and be thought a fool than it is to speak up when temptation strikes and be proven one.