Silence propagates itself, and the longer talk has been suspended, the more difficult it is to find anything to say.
—Samuel Johnson
Don't talk about yourself; it will be done when you leave.
—Wilson Mizner
The less you talk, the more you're listened to.
—Pauline Phillips
An enormous conflict between words and deeds is prevalent today: everyone talks about freedom, democracy, justice, human rights, about peace and saving the world from nuclear apocalypse; and at the same time, everyone, more or less, consciously or unconsciously, serves those values and ideals only to the extent necessary to serve himself and his "worldly" interests, personal interests, group interests, power interests, property interests, and state or great-power interests.… So the power structures apparently have no other choice than to sink deeper into this vicious maelstrom, and contemporary people apparently have no other choice than to wait around until the final inhibition drops away. But who should begin? Who should break this vicious circle? Responsibility cannot be preached but only borne, and the only possible place to begin is with oneself.
—Vaclav Havel
It is better to live a holy life than to talk about it. Lighthouses do not ring bells and fire cannons to call attention to their shining; they just shine.
—D. L. Moody
Nobody talks so constantly about God as those who insist that there is no God.
—Heywood Broun
A professor is someone who talks in someone else's sleep.
—W. H. Auden
But talk was cheap and useless. Action was what mattered.
—Sarah Dessen in What Happened to Goodbye
If cats could talk, they wouldn't.
—Nan Porter