A wise man will hold his tongue till he see opportunity: but a babbler and a fool will regard no time.
All Commentaries on Wisdom of Sirach 20:7 Go To Wisdom of Sirach 20
Gregory The Dialogist
AD 604
Those who notice what is evil in their neighbors, and yet refrain their tongue in silence, withdraw, as it were, the aid of medicine from observed sores and become the cause of death because they would not cure the venom that they could have cured. The tongue, therefore, should be discreetly curbed, not tied up fast. For it is written, "A wise person will hold his tongue until the opportune time." He will do this in order that when he considers it opportune, he can with assurance relinquish the censorship of silence and apply himself to the helpful service by speaking such things as are appropriate. And again it is written, "There is a time to keep silence and a time to speak." For, indeed, the appropriate time for each should be discreetly weighed just in case, on the one hand, when the tongue should be restrained it is allowed to run loose to no profit in what is said, or, on the other hand, when it could say something profitably, it shirks its duty and restrains itself. The psalmist spoke of this well when he said, "Set a watch, O Lord, on my mouth, and guard the door of my lips." For he is not looking for a wall to set about his lips but a door"in other words, something that can be opened or shut. This is something we need to learn with discretion so that we use our voice in a discreet and fitting time to open the mouth, and at the appropriate time also let silence close it. But those who spend time in much speaking are to be admonished that they vigilantly note from what a state of being in the right they fall away when they flow forth in a multitude of words. For the human mind is just like water, which, when closed in is collected to higher levels because it seeks again the height from which it descended. By the same token, when that water is let loose, it falls away in that it disperses itself unprofitably through the lowest places.
