Silence and Speech

There is no need, then, to be quarrelsome.

Do not spend long periods of time in extended conversations,

for the Devil can actually do harm through inopportune chitchat.

-Life of Syncletica

Silence and Speech

"Malicious talk, therefore is a serious and troublesome matter, for it is the sustenance and recreation of some people. You should not, however, accept empty hearsay, lest you become a receptacle for other's people evils. Keep your own soul unlittered. For, by accepting the foul-smelling garbage of words, you will introduce stains to your prayer through your thoughts, and without cause you will hate your associates. For when your hearing has been drenched with the misanthropy of malicious talkers, you will look on all people without generosity, just as the eyes has a blurred image of objects when it is inordinately obsessed with color." - Life of Syncletica

"No foul word should ever cross your lips; let your words be for the improvement of others, as occasion offers, and do good to your listeners." Ephesians 4:29

"Our words are a faithful index of the state of our souls." St. Fancis de Sales

"Listen, O child, to the commands of your master, and bend the ear of your heart." - Rule of Benedict

"Be neither a complainer nor a detractor." -Rule of Benedict

"Whatever moves the heart wags the tongue." Charles Thomas (C.T.) Studd

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The Westminster Collection of Christian Quotations Complied by Martin H. Manswer. WJK Books ISBN 0-664-22258-7 and Essential Monastic Wisdom - Writings of Contemplative Life by Hugh Feiss; Harper San Francisco, page pg 72,73 ; ISBN 0-06-062483-3