Daily Inspiration Quote by Brigham Young

Silence gets sold as virtue, but Brigham Young flips it into strategy: the richest kind of “gold” isn’t wordless piety, it’s the disciplined choice to let someone else take the floor. The line works because it yanks a familiar proverb out of the realm of moral decoration and forces it to prove its usefulness. Silence isn’t automatically noble; it becomes valuable when it’s deployed as attention.

Coming from a 19th-century religious leader and institution builder, the subtext is managerial as much as spiritual. Young led a community that required cohesion, obedience, and constant negotiation among believers, doubters, and newcomers. In that setting, listening isn’t just politeness; it’s reconnaissance and governance. Let people talk and you learn what they fear, what they want, where they’re drifting. You also give them the sensation of being seen, which is its own kind of social glue. “Entertain” is the sly word here: it recasts humility as something pleasing, even irresistible, turning a duty into a social pleasure.

There’s a quiet power play embedded in the charm. The listener appears self-effacing while actually controlling the tempo and direction of the exchange. In an era that prized oratory and public testimony, Young’s framing suggests a counter-rhetoric: leadership isn’t only in speaking well, but in making others feel like they’ve spoken well. Silence becomes a tool of influence that looks like generosity.