"Silence is best"
About this Quote
Three words deliver a counsel of restraint and a strategy for clarity. Silence is best when talk would distort, inflame, or harden positions before understanding has a chance to emerge. It honors the interval between stimulus and response, the space where thought and empathy can do their work. To choose quiet is not to abdicate; it is to refuse the reflex that turns every moment into performance.
Coming from John Hewson, a figure of public life schooled in adversarial politics, the line carries a deliberate tension. Public debates reward the quick sound bite, the never-concede posture, the constant feed of opinion. Silence defies that economy. It can be tactical, starving a controversy of oxygen or inviting an opponent to overextend. It can be ethical, declining to add noise where facts are uncertain, or refraining from speaking over those whose experience should lead. It can also be an acknowledgment of limits, a reminder that knowledge grows in listening and that speech without comprehension multiplies error.
Yet silence is not uniformly virtuous. There is a silence that protects the vulnerable and a silence that shields wrongdoing. There is a quiet that holds space for grief and a quiet that enforces complicity. Calling silence best invites discernment: best toward what end, for whom, and at what cost. The wisdom lies in the timing and the motive. Silence before a decision can clarify motives; silence after a mistake can look like evasion. A pause in negotiation can win concessions; a pause in crisis can squander trust.
The paradox is that silence communicates. It can signal respect, seriousness, and self-command. It can lower the temperature and open a path out of stalemate. In an age saturated with comments, alerts, and outrage, the rare act of withholding speech becomes meaningful speech. Silence is best when it makes room for truth to be heard and for better words to be chosen.
Coming from John Hewson, a figure of public life schooled in adversarial politics, the line carries a deliberate tension. Public debates reward the quick sound bite, the never-concede posture, the constant feed of opinion. Silence defies that economy. It can be tactical, starving a controversy of oxygen or inviting an opponent to overextend. It can be ethical, declining to add noise where facts are uncertain, or refraining from speaking over those whose experience should lead. It can also be an acknowledgment of limits, a reminder that knowledge grows in listening and that speech without comprehension multiplies error.
Yet silence is not uniformly virtuous. There is a silence that protects the vulnerable and a silence that shields wrongdoing. There is a quiet that holds space for grief and a quiet that enforces complicity. Calling silence best invites discernment: best toward what end, for whom, and at what cost. The wisdom lies in the timing and the motive. Silence before a decision can clarify motives; silence after a mistake can look like evasion. A pause in negotiation can win concessions; a pause in crisis can squander trust.
The paradox is that silence communicates. It can signal respect, seriousness, and self-command. It can lower the temperature and open a path out of stalemate. In an age saturated with comments, alerts, and outrage, the rare act of withholding speech becomes meaningful speech. Silence is best when it makes room for truth to be heard and for better words to be chosen.
Quote Details
| Topic | Wisdom |
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