Even fools are thought wise if they keep silent, and discerning if they hold their tongues. – Proverbs 17:28

Today’s Scripture Reading (August 31, 2016): Proverbs 17

“It is better to remain silent at the risk of being thought a fool, than to talk and remove all doubt of it.” This proverb has moved through several phrasings, but all have carried the same message. And just as the phrasings have changed, so have the authors who have supposedly originated the proverb. Among the best well-known of the possible originators are Abraham Lincoln and Mark Twain. But both of those have received late attributions, attributions that have not appeared in media until well after their deaths. So the question is – if they had originated the saying, then why is there not a record of them saying it closer to the period of their lives. While it would not be impossible for either Abraham Lincoln or Mark Twain to have written the saying down in what is now a lost document, we have so many lists of their proverbs that one might think that this one would have been included if they had indeed said it.

The proverb as it stands here is the earliest rendition of which we have a confirmed source. This proverb is found in the 1906 book “Mrs. Goose, Her Book” by Maurice Switzer. The book is filled with nonsense poetry, and you can look up and find this jewel on page 29. The book itself seems to be a follow-up or attempted sequel to the L. Frank Baum classic “Father Goose, His Book.” It was this book that set the stage for all of L. Frank Baum’s later writing, including “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.” Maurice Switzer apparently did not find the same success with “Mrs. Goose.”

But the idea behind the proverb has an even more ancient source – The Bible and the Book of Proverbs. Proverbs 17:28 holds the inspiration for all later versions of this proverb - Even fools are thought wise if they keep silent, and discerning if they hold their tongues. And it might be one of the most needed Proverbs of our day. Somehow we have been infected with the idea that our speech is our strength. We have also been infected with the notion that we have a voice and a right to use it. But often it is the reverse that is true. Strength doesn’t come from our voice, but from our silence. When we are silent, which I need to be more than I am, it lends strength to what we say when we do speak. And yes, we have the right to speak in our culture, but more often than not that right coincides with another right in our culture – the right for the world to know for certain that we are fools.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Proverbs 18