Quote of the Week...from Abraham Lincoln

Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.
                                                          ---Abraham Lincoln.

Our sixteenth president produced a lot of sagacious and humorous one-liners like the above...I could have picked from several others as well.  But I picked this one because it has an almost universal application...although in this article I think it's prudent to just refer to myself...

Being someone who generally keeps to myself, many around me might think that I am reserved and careful about what I say when I do getting around to speaking.  But that's not what ol' Abe was talking about with his quote: one can be gregarious and loquacious and still practice wisdom regarding their choices of both timing and words when it comes to speaking with others.  As a matter of fact, the more practice, the better I imagine people would be at determining what works and what doesn't...so just because I don't usually speak a lot doesn't mean that I'm not liable to say something extraordinarily foolish when I do finally get around to opening up my mouth...

The art of civility, which the main character in a novel I'm currently reading has made a priority of practicing, involves a sometimes difficult balancing act, with the necessity at times to be openly assertive and frank on one side and the potentially negative consequences of doing this on the other.  Lincoln was in essence saying that, if you can't clearly conclude that speaking out on something is necessary and productive, then better to "remain silent and thought a fool" than to make things worse with your words.  I think most folks agree with this, although they...myself included...often do the opposite, unfortunately...