Silence as a Vessel of Wisdom
Silence doesn’t always mean you
have nothing to say; sometimes, it is the highest expression of wisdom. The Sages teach in Pirkei Avot (3:13): “A fence for wisdom is silence.” Rabbi
Akiva, one of Judaism’s greatest teachers, understood that words are powerful-but restraint is sacred.
In a world filled with noise, where speech is constant and often
careless, silence becomes a form of discipline. It is not a void, but a vessel
—making space for deep listening, reflection, and humility. When we withhold speech, we allow the heart and mind to settle. We honor the weight of words by not using them lightly.
The Talmud says that even a fool who
keeps silent may be considered wise (Megillah 18a). This is not a call to suppress truth, but to recognize that
wisdom often begins not in what is
said, but in knowing when to speak—
and when to be still.
In moments of silence, we may hear more clearly the quiet whisper of the Divine.
Life is not a matter of holding good cards…
Changes Nothing,
We are told the surgeon is not the boy’s father.
The key is that we often assume surgeons are men, but in reality:
The surgeon is the boy’s mother.
“Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” is a playful, made-up word from the 1964 Disney film Mary Poppins.
It doesn’t have a literal dictionary meaning, but it’s used to express something extraordinary, wonderful, or fantastically good—especially when you can’t think of anything else to say.
In the film, they describe it as:
“something to say when you have nothing to say.”
People often use it humorously to mean “amazing,” “fantastic,” or “super impressive.”
There are people who have a real gift for noticing the faults of others, and another gift just as real for not noticing their own faults.
The following quote is often attributed in spirit to Alan Greenspan, the former U.S. Federal Reserve Chair, who once said:
“I know you think you understand what you thought I said, but I’m not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant.”
That quote has become famous for its almost comic complexity, but it touches the same core idea.
The concept also echoes communication theories, like those from Paul Watzlawick, who emphasized that “the meaning of a message is not just in the words, but in how it’s interpreted.”
📎 1). PRAYER is not a “spare wheel” that YOU PULL OUT when IN trouble, but it is a “STEERING WHEEL” that DIRECT the RIGHT PATH THROUGHOUT LIFE.
📎2). Why is a CAR’S WINDSHIELD so LARGE & the REAR VIEW MIRROR so small? BECAUSE our PAST is NOT as IMPORTANT as OUR FUTURE. So, LOOK AHEAD and MOVE ON.
📎3). FRIENDSHIP is like a BOOK. It takes a FEW SECONDS to BURN, but it TAKES YEARS to WRITE.
📎4). All THINGS in LIFE are TEMPORARY. If they are GOING WELL, ENJOY them, they WILL NOT LAST FOREVER. If they are going wrong, don’t WORRY, THEY CAN’T LAST FOREVER EITHER.
📎5). Old FRIENDS are GOLD! NEW friends are DIAMONDS! If you GET a DIAMOND, DON’T FORGET the GOLD! To HOLD a DIAMOND, you ALWAYS NEED a BASE of GOLD!
📎6). Often when WE LOSE HOPE and THINK this is the END, GOD SMILES from ABOVE and SAYS, “RELAX, SWEETHEART; it’s JUST a BEND, NOT THE END!”
📎7). When GOD SOLVES your PROBLEMS, you HAVE FAITH in HIS ABILITIES; when GOD DOESN’T SOLVE YOUR PROBLEMS, HE has FAITH in YOUR ABILITIES.
📎8). A BLIND PERSON asked GOD: “CAN THERE be ANYTHING WORSE THAN LOSING EYE SIGHT?” HE REPLIED: “YES, LOSING YOUR VISION!”
📎9). When YOU PRAY for OTHERS, GOD LISTENS to YOU and BLESSES THEM, and SOMETIMES, when you are SAFE and HAPPY, REMEMBER that SOMEONE has PRAYED for YOU.
📎10). WORRYING does NOT TAKE AWAY TOMORROW’S TROUBLES; IT TAKES AWAY today’s PEACE.
Birth is the
“Start of life”
Beauty is the
“art of life”
Love is the
“part of life”
But, Friendship is the
“Heart of life”.
Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art.
It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things that give value to survival.
C. S. Lewis
The provided statement,
“MUSIC gives a SOUL to the UNIVERSE, WINGS to the mind, FLIGHT to the IMAGINATION and LIFE to EVERYTHING,”
is a well-known quote attributed to Plato. It emphasizes music’s profound impact on both the physical and spiritual realms, offering a sense of purpose to the universe, inspiration to the mind, and a catalyst for creativity and vitality.
Ne dis jamais…
“I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times.
Bruce Lee
Voltaire? François-Marie Arouet? S. G. Tallentyre? Evelyn Beatrice Hall? Ignazio Silone? Douglas Young? Norbert Guterman?
Dear Quote Investigator:Would you please explore a famous saying that apparently has been misattributed to Voltaire:
I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.
The words above reportedly originated with an English author named Evelyn Beatrice Hall in 1906. There is a different version in French, but I do not think it is authentic:
Monsieur l’abbé, je déteste ce que vous écrivez, mais je donnerai ma vie pour que vous puissiez continuer à écrire.
Here is one rendering in English:
Monsieur l’abbé, I detest what you write, but I would give my life to make it possible for you to continue to write.
What do you think?
Quote Investigator: Voltaire was the pen name of François-Marie Arouet who died in 1778. The earliest evidence of the saying appeared many years afterwards in the 1906 book “The Friends of Voltaire” by S. G. Tallentyre which was the pseudonym of historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall.
Her book described an incident involving the French philosopher Claude-Adrien Helvétius who in 1758 published a controversial work titled “De l’esprit” (“On the Mind”). The book was condemned in the Parlement of Paris and by the Collège de Sorbonne. Voltaire was unimpressed with the text, but he considered the attacks unjustified. After Voltaire learned that the book by Helvétius had been publicly incinerated he reacted as follows according to Hall:[ref] 1906, The Friends of Voltaire by S. G. Tallentyre (Actual author: Evelyn Beatrice Hall), Quote Page 198 and 199, Published be John Murray, Albemarle Street, London. (Google Books Full View) link [/ref]
‘What a fuss about an omelette!’ he had exclaimed when he heard of the burning. How abominably unjust to persecute a man for such an airy trifle as that!
‘I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it,’ was his attitude now.
The above passage was confusing because Hall enclosed the now famous statement in quotation marks. Yet, the elegant phrase depicted Hall’s conception of Voltaire’s internal mental attitude and not his actual spoken words. Indeed, Hall asserted that the words were hers and not Voltaire’s in a 1939 letter published in the journal “Modern Language Notes”. Nevertheless, the misunderstanding persists to this day.
The questioner highlighted a French version of the saying, and QI has located a new matching citation in 1950, but the origin of this French statement remains uncertain. Detailed information is given further below.
Here are additional selected citations in chronological order.
In 1919 Evelyn Beatrice Hall revisited this topic when she published a collection of letters from Voltaire which she had translated and edited. She included an instance of the well-known saying, but she did not assign the words to Voltaire. Instead, she labelled the expression a “Voltairean principle”, and she placed it within her own commentary about the relationship between Voltaire and Helvétius. Boldface has been added to excerpts:[ref] 1919, Voltaire in His Letters: Being a Selection from His Correspondence, Translated and Edited by S. G. Tallentyre (Actual author and translator: Evelyn Beatrice Hall), (Commentary on letter 22 from Voltaire to Helvétius), Quote Page 65, Published by G. P. Putnam’s Sons, New York. (Google Boks Full View) link [/ref]
When in 1759, On the Mind was burnt by the public hangman in company with Voltaire’s poem On Natural Law, though he had soundly hated (and roundly abused) Helvétius’ masterpiece, he fought for its right to live, tooth and nail, up hill and down dale, on the essentially Voltairean principle: “I wholly disapprove of what you say—and will defend to the death your right to say it.”
Hall’s phrasing in 1919 differed slightly from the phrasing in 1906, e.g., the word “wholly” was inserted. Also, the placement clearly indicated that the expression was hers and not Voltaire’s.
In 1920 a book titled “My Second Country (France)” by a Francophile named Robert Dell printed an instance of the remark. The author stated that the phrase with “wholly” appeared within a letter sent to Helvétius but no date was listed:[ref] 1920, My Second Country (France) by Robert Dell, Quote Page 289 and 290, Published by John Lane, London and New York. (Google Books Full View) link [/ref]
Voltaire’s tolerance finds its highest expression in the famous sentence of his letter to Helvetius: “I wholly disapprove of what you say and will defend to the death your right to say it.”
In June 1920 a newspaper in Aberdeen, South Dakota credited the version with “wholly” to Voltaire:[ref] 1920 June 3, Daily North-West Square Deal, Freedom of Speech, Quote Page 4, Column 4, Aberdeen, South Dakota. (GenealogyBank)[/ref]
FREEDOM OF SPEECH
While lovers of liberty in all lands have urged the necessity of freedom of speech, none put the case more pointedly than Voltaire when he said: “I wholly disapprove of what you say—and will defend to the death your right to say it.”
In November 1922 the widely circulated periodical “Collier’s: The National Weekly” printed an article about free speech that included an instance of the saying with the word “contend” instead of “defend”. The article was reprinted in the “Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen’s Magazine” of Indianapolis, Indiana:[ref] 1922 November 4, Collier’s: The National Weekly, Volume 70, Number 19, “Let the People Know the Truth”: A Brief for Free Speech by Henry E. Jackson, Start Page 3, Quote Page 3, Column 1, Published by P. F. Collier and Son Company, New York. (Google Books Full View) link [/ref][ref] 1923 March, Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen’s Magazine, Volume 74, Number 1, Let the People Know the Truth: A Brief for Free Speech by Henry E. Jackson, (Acknowledgement to Collier’s, The National Weekly), Start Page 101, Quote Page 101, Published by the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen, Indianapolis, Indiana. (Google Books Full View) link [/ref]
If you deny to anyone else the right to say what you think is wrong, it will not be long before you will lose the right to say what you think is right. Defense of the freedom of others is self-defense. Voltaire stated this fact as a genius can: “I wholly disagree with what you say and will contend to the death for your right to say it.”
In 1943 Burdette Kinne of Columbia University published a short article in “Modern Language Notes” which contained an important letter Hall sent to Kinne in 1939. Hall stated that she had crafted the saying and not Voltaire:[ref] 1943 November, Modern Language Notes, Volume 58, Number 7, Voltaire Never Said it! by Burdette Kinne, (Letter dated May 9, 1939 from E. Beatrice Hall (S. G. Tallentyre)), Start Page 534, Quote Page 534 and 535, The Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, Maryland. (JSTOR) link[/ref]
The phrase “I wholly disapprove of what you say and will defend to the death your right to say it” which you have found in my book “Voltaire in His Letters” is my own expression and should not have been put in inverted commas. Please accept my apologies for having, quite unintentionally, misled you into thinking I was quoting a sentence used by Voltaire (or anyone else but myself).
A memoir by Douglas Young published in 1950 mentioned a speech given by Ignazio Silone who was the President of the Italian Centre of P.E.N. (Poets, Essayists and Novelists). Young stated that Silone employed a French version of the saying attributed to Voltaire:[ref] 1950, Chasing an Ancient Greek: Discursive Reminiscences of an European Journey by Douglas Young, Quote Page 117, Published by Hollis & Carter, London. (Verified with scans thanks to Joel S. Berson and the Widener Library of Harvard University)[/ref]
People in P.E.N. are fond of quoting Voltaire’s remark: “Monsieur l’Abbé, je déteste ce que vous écrivez, mais je donnerais ma vie pour que vous puissiez continuer à écrire”, and Silone duly quoted it, going on, however, to develop a criticism of the social, political and economic factors on which the freedom of expression is dependent.
In 1963 a collection of French quotations with English translations was released by Norbert Guterman. The French statement listed above was included in the compilation, but no citation was provided. Within Guterman’s book there was a citation to a letter dated February 6, 1770, but that citation was for an adjacent Voltaire quotation about God and large battalions. Some readers became confused:[ref] 1990 (Originally published in 1963), The Anchor Book of French Quotations with English Translations, Compiled by Norbert Guterman, Section: Voltaire, Quote Page 188, Published by Anchor Books: Doubleday, New York. (Verified with scans)[/ref]
On dit que Dieu est toujours pour les gros bataillons.
Id., A M. le Riche, 6 février 1770Monsieur l’abbé, je déteste ce que vous écrivez, mais je donnerais ma vie pour que vous puissiez continuer à écrire.
Id.
The 1968 edition of “Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations” contained an entry for the saying attributed to Voltaire:[ref] 1968, Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations by John Bartlett, Edited by Emily Morison Beck, Fourteenth Edition, Section: Voltaire, Quote Page 418, Published by Little, Brown and Company, Boston, Massachusetts. (Verified on paper)[/ref]
I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it. Attributed
A footnote attached to the quotation in “Bartlett’s” contained some flawed information about Guterman’s book. The incorrect suggestion that the quotation could be found in a 1770 letter has also been transmitted in other reference works:
Norbert Guterman, in A Book of French Quotations [1963], suggests that the probable source for the quotation is from a line in a letter to M. le Riche [February 6, 1770]: “Monsieur l’abbe, I detest what you write, but I would give my life to make it possible for you to continue to write.”
The French Wikipedia page for Voltaire also ascribes the saying to Hall and not to Voltaire. In addition, the webpage notes that the citation to a letter dated February 6, 1770 was spurious.[ref] Website: Wikipedia (French), Article title: Voltaire, Website description: Encyclopedia edited by volunteers, (Accessed fr.wikipedia.org on May 30, 2016) link [/ref]
In conclusion, many researchers have attempted to find the quotation in the works of Voltaire, but it has never been located. Evelyn Beatrice Hall probably crafted the statement which was disseminated in her 1906 work titled “The Friends of Voltaire”. Hall’s words memorably and gracefully reflected her conception of Voltaire’s viewpoint.
The French version of the saying was in circulation by 1950, a very late date. Douglas Young wrote that he heard it in a speech delivered by Ignazio Silone. The saying was printed in a quotation collection in 1963 and then it appeared in the fourteenth edition of the important reference “Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations”.
(Great thanks to Lidia Freitas whose inquiry led QI to formulate this question and perform this exploration. Thanks also to Conor Walsh who asked about a related quotation attributed to Oscar Wilde. Special thanks to Tom Sawallis who pointed to some useful French language webpages on this topic. One source contained the important 1943 citation in which Hall ascribed the quotation to herself. Many thanks to Joel S. Berson who accessed the 1950 book “Chasing an Ancient Greek”.)
Source: https://quoteinvestigator.com/2015/06/01/defend-say/?amp=1
Norman Vincent Peale relates a story in his book, ‘Power of the Plus Factor’:
While in Hong Kong, I came upon a tattoo studio in whose window were displayed samples of the tattoos available.
I was struck by three words that could be tattooed on one’s flesh: “Born to Lose”.
Astonished, I asked the Chinese tattoo artist, “Does anyone really have that terrible phrase, ‘Born to Lose’, tattooed on his body?”
He replied, “Yes, sometimes.” “But,” I said, “I just can’t believe that anyone in his right mind would do that.”
The Chinese man simply tapped his forehead and said
“Before tattoo on the body, tattoo in the mind.”
What tattoos (habits, points of view, learned beliefs, self-images) in your mind do not serve you?
Closing quotes:
“Every man takes the limits of his field of vision for the limits of the world.” – Arthur Schopenhauer
“Think you can, think you can’t, you are right.” – Henry Ford
“Nothing limits achievement like small thinking; nothing expands possibilities like unleashed imagination.” – William Arthur Ward
As always, I share what I most want and need to learn – Nathan S. Collier
Source: https://nscblog.com/the-doing-accountability/before-tattoo-on-the-body-tattoo-in-the-mind/
Victor Hugo
A Sample Of My Favourite Quotes 