Silence is Gold

Speech is Silver, But Silence is Golden.

‘When you have the speech of excellence,
The better and better you teach.
When you have the power of silence,
The higher and higher you reach!’

 It is a fact that when we speak, others become silent and when others speak, we become silent. But it’s always upon us that what we choose- ‘speech’ or ‘silence’. When we speak, we are just confirming or showing others what we know, but when we are silent, we are increasing our own knowledge, because we are getting to know that what others know. When two best friends meet after a very long time, they have many things to say; many complaints to do; many secrets to share; many questions to be answered; and much more! But ‘silence’ is the first thing they share. It is not always necessary that we need to speak in order to express our selves. Sometimes, silence plays a greater role! We can also not deny the fact that words have healing powers. Huge wars have been stopped due to the speeches of great people. On the other hand, many wars, that changed our whole life; that ruined many people’s present, were the result of the exchange of just a few words! Mahatma Gandhi has written in his autobiography- ‘The Story of My Experiments with Truth’ that he was very shy during his childhood. He was not able to express himself properly and whenever he would have to deliver speeches, he couldn’t utter a word. Firstly, he thought that this silence was his weakness. But later in his biography, he has written that this quality his’ proved to be a boon for him. His silence became his power! In many of the non- violent protests led by him, he fought, but not by shouting aloud; but by being silent. He has said that a person who is silent has less chances of speaking anything that is unnecessary or may hurt others. This justifies that silence has greater significance than speech. Silence helps us to know our inner self.

There are times when silence become the most potential way of communication and it's more effective than words, for instance sometimes a silent angry look from our parents enough to let us feel their fury and agony, and this angry look capable of making us behave better than harsh reprimand or scolding.


Undeniably, silence needs a special kind of power and authority of mind, to say nothing is more difficult than expressing anger, happiness, love, betrayal with words. That's why it's a quite difficult conflict between a man and his mind to a long journey of controlling our senses and reactions.God is great, He has blessed us with the power of speech. But it rests with us whether we use our tongue with restraint or not. They say “if speech is silver, silence is gold.” We should therefore, use our tongue carefully. To be a good speaker is a great virtue. A good talker is well – versed in using the correct words in saying the right thing at the right moment. To be a good listener is also a great quality. A talkative person who is in the habit of speaking too much often exposes himself. If we remain silent, nobody can read our mind. Silence conceals most of our weaknesses. So we should observe as much silence as we can.

Thank you