TONGUE, CONTROL OF

On a windswept hill in an English country churchyard stands a drab, gray slate tombstone. The faint etchings read:

beneath this stone, a lump of clay,

lies arabella young,

who, on the twenty-fourth of may,

began to hold her tongue.1395

If your lips you would keep from slips,

Five things observe with care:

To whom you speak; of whom you speak;

And how, and when, and where.

William Norris1396

Some people are too talkative. They are like the young man who supposedly went to the great Greek philosopher Socrates to learn oratory. On being introduced, he talked so incessantly that Socrates asked for double fees. “Why charge me double?” said the young fellow. “Because,” said the orator, “I must teach you two sciences: the one is how to hold your tongue, and the other is how to speak.”1397

A talkative woman once tried to justify the quickness of her own tongue by saying, “It passes; it is done with quickly.” To which the famous evangelist Billy Sunday replied, “So does a shotgun blast.”

And such is the action of a quick tongue that it also leaves devastation in its wake.1398

A young lady once said to John Wesley, “I think I know what my talent is.”

Wesley said, “Tell me.”

She replied, “I think it is to speak my mind.”

Wesley said, “I do not think God would mind if you bury that talent.”1399

The ancient philosopher Zeno once said, “We have two ears and one mouth, therefore we should listen twice as much as we speak.1400