silence is golden

English

Etymology

Calque of Latin silentium est aureum (“silence is golden”).

Proverb

silence is golden

Peace and quiet have great value.
- 1877, Charles Reade, chapter 21, in A Woman-Hater‎:
  "[I] adore good music, I hate bad, and I despise mediocre. Silence is golden, indeed, compared with poor music."
Often the best choice is to say nothing.
- 1897, Horatio Alger, chapter 2, in Walter Sherwood's Probation:
  But I have spoken long enough. There are times when silence is golden, and one of those times is at hand.
- 1987 April 4, T.R. Witomski, “witomski responds to readers' response to witomski (letter)”, in Gay Community News, page 6:
  I shouldn't lower myself to respond to the personal attacks on me, but silence, as the current scandal plaguing the federal administration shows, isn't golden.

Related terms

speech is silver, silence is golden

Translations

proverb

Arabic: اَلسُّكُوتُ مِن ذَهَبٍ (as-sukūtu min ḏahabin)
Bulgarian: мълча́нието е зла́то (mǎlčánieto e zláto)
Chinese:
Mandarin: 沉默是金 (zh) (chénmò shì jīn)
Czech: mlčeti zlato
Danish: tale er sølv, tavshed er guld
Finnish: vaikeneminen on kultaa
French: le silence est d’or
German: Schweigen ist Gold
Greek: η σιωπή είναι χρυσός (i siopí eínai chrysós)
Hebrew: שְׁתִיקָה שָׁוָה זָהָב (he) (shtiqà shavà zahàv)
Hungarian: hallgatni arany (hu)
Icelandic: þögn er gulls ígildi, enginn er allheimskur ef þegja má (literally “no one is completely stupid if they can hold their silence”)
Indonesian: diam itu emas
Italian: il silenzio è d'oro
Japanese: 沈黙は金雄弁は銀 (chinmoku wa kin yūben wa gin), 言わぬが花 (ja) (いわぬがはな, iwanu ga hana, literally “not saying is a flower”)
Latin: silentium est aurum
Macedonian: молчењето е злато (molčenjeto e zlato)
Polish: milczenie jest złotem
Portuguese: o silêncio é ouro
Russian: сло́во — серебро́, молча́ние — зо́лото (slóvo — serebró, molčánije — zóloto), молча́ние — зо́лото (molčánije — zóloto)
Scottish Gaelic: 's fhearr a bhith sàmhach na droch dhan a ghabhail, cha déid cuileag am beul dùinte, am fear a ghléidheas a theangaidh, ghléidhidh e a charaid
Serbo-Croatian:
Cyrillic: ћутање је злато

Roman: ćutanje je zlato
Spanish: el silencio es oro, por la boca muere el pez
Swedish: tiga är guld
Vietnamese: im lặng là vàng

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