Even a fool who keeps silent is considered wise;
when he closes his lips, he is deemed intelligent.
Sometimes the stupidest things come out of my mouth. Clearly, there are times when it would’ve been better for me to keep my mouth shut. But, being an introvert, I usually have the opposite problem. I tend to over-analyze everything I plan to say, which means I say very little at times (because if you turn your words over in your brain before you say them, the conversation has usually moved on before you put in your remark). And I do have a reputation of being reasonably intelligent, though I have no idea if that’s related to how much I say. I do know, though, that I feel like I’m tearing down my facade of reasonably intelligence every time I blurt out something stupid. That’s why I like writing. You can think every sentence over as much as you like before showing anyone. Of course, enough people have gotten in trouble for the things they’ve written. But in general, you have far more time to think about what you’re going to say, how it can be taken wrong, and how to be clear about your message. It’s just more comfortable for me that way. 🙂
What about you – is silence golden, or can you look reasonably intelligent even when you’re shooting your mouth off?
Hmm... 
Okay, so I have another French “saying” for you, even if this one is a lot more recent. But that’s what came into my mind when I saw your quote. Here goes : “La culture, c’est comme la confiture, moins on en a plus on étale.”
And now, the explanation : basically, it means that the more you talk, the less you know. The first part means “Knowledge is like jam” and the other part litteraly means “the less you have the more you spread it.” Sort of. It’s a pun on the verb étaler, which means both to show off (you knowledge) and to spread (jam).
If you don’t have a lot of jam left, you’re gonna spread it on your bread as much as you can. Well, knowledge is the same, when you don’t have much of it you try to show off the little you got. My explanation is a big gigantic mess sorry lol. It’s a quote I’m so used to hear that it came to me naturally.
As for your question – I guess it depends who you’re talking to. I mean, you can afford to shoot your mouth off, as you put it, if the person you’re talking to knows even less than you do about a particular subject. But if you talk to someone who knows exactly the subject at hands, I wouldn’t go as far as to say silence is golden but you need to think it through before you talk cause you could end up saying something really stupid. If you know enough to have a real debate, go ahead, but don’t just talk to hear the sound of your own voice^^
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I love sayings like that – with double meanings that all fit together nicely. I love to debate stuff myself, but I feel really uncomfortable wading into topics I don’t know much about, and then, yes, silence is golden.
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