A Philosopher on the Wisdom of Silence

Once on a railway journey my father unintentionally perpetrated some slight infraction and was unmercifully bawled out by a minor train employee. I was young then and hotly told my father afterward that he should have given the man a piece of his mind.

My father smiled, “Oh,” he said, “if a man like that can stand himself all his life, surely I can stand him for five minutes.”

Catholic Quote, Reader’s Digest, March, 1980