Autor: Sertillanges A. D. (Gilbert)

Buch: The Intellectual Life

Titel: The Intellectual Life

Stichwort: Umgang mit der Welt; Rede mit dem Gewicht des Schweigens

Kurzinhalt: Our contacts with the outer world should be like those of the angel; Speech is weighty when one perceives silence beneath it

Textausschnitt: 38/3 Our contacts with the outer world should be like those of the angel, who touches and remains untouched unless he wills, who gives and from whom one takes nothing away because he belongs to another world. (61; Fs) (notabene)

By moderation in speech, you will also attain that continuous recollection and that wise give and take which are so important a provision for you. To speak for the sake of what must be said, to express a timely feeling or a useful idea and then to be silent, is the secret of keeping possession of yourself while giving something to others, instead of letting your own torch go out as it lights other torches.

Besides, that is the way to give weight to one's words. Speech is weighty when one perceives silence beneath it, when it conceals and yet suggests a treasure behind the words, a treasure that it gives out little by little, as is fitting, without haste and frivolous excitement. Silence is the hidden content of the words that count. What makes the worth of a soul is the abundance of what it does not express. (61; Fs) (notabene)