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About this quote

What does it mean?
Talking too much shows vanity because people who waste words usually fail to take action.
In plain terms
People who talk a lot do little.
What can you take from it?
Actions speak louder than excessive words.

Where it applies

  • leadership
  • workplace
  • self-improvement

Putting it to work

  • act more
  • speak less
  • measure deeds

Questions to consider

  • Are talkers less productive?
  • Why do we overpromise?

Another view

It dismisses the value of communication entirely.

More from Sir Walter Raleigh

  1. But it is hard to know them [flatterers] from friends, they are so obsequious, and full of protestations; for as a wolf resembles a dog, so doth a flatterer a …

    Permalink to quote #22
  2. Be advised what thou dost discourse of, and what thou maintainest whether touching religion, state, or vanity; for if thou err in the first, thou shalt be acco…

    Permalink to quote #24
  3. Bestow therefore thy youth so, that thou mayest have comfort to remember it when it hath forsaken thee, and not sigh and grieve at the account thereof.

    Permalink to quote #21

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