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About this quote

What does it mean?
Intelligent people stay silent when times are risky.
In plain terms
Smart people do not speak when it is dangerous.
What can you take from it?
Silence is a strategy during dangerous periods.

Where it applies

  • political repression
  • corporate risk
  • personal safety

Putting it to work

  • deciding when to speak
  • assessing risk

Questions to consider

  • When should wise people speak?
  • What is the cost of silence?

Another view

Silence can also enable wrongdoing in dangerous times.

More from John Selden

  1. Never tell your resolution beforehand.

    Permalink to quote #18
  2. Pleasure is nothing else but the intermission of pain.

    Permalink to quote #20
  3. Never king dropped out of the clouds.

    Permalink to quote #17

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