William Penn. (1644–1718). Fruits of Solitude.
The Harvard Classics. 1909–14. |
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| Part II |
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| Of Conduct in Speech |
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| 117. Enquire often, but Judge rarely, and thou wilt not often be mistaken. | 1 |
| 118. It is safer to Learn, than teach; and who conceals his Opinion, has nothing to Answer for. | 2 |
| 119. Vanity or Resentment often engage us, and ’t is two to one but we come off Losers; for one shews a Want of Judgment and Humility, as the other does of Temper and Discretion. | 3 |
| 120. Not that I admire the Reserved; for they are next to Unnatural that are not Communicable. But if Reservedness be at any Time a Virtue, ’t is in Throngs or ill Company. | 4 |
| 121. Beware also of Affectation in Speech; it often wrongs Matter, and ever shows a blind Side. | 5 |
| 122. Speak properly, and in as few Words as you can, but always plainly; for the End of Speech is not Ostentation, but to be understood. | 6 |
| 123. They that affect Words more than Matter, will dry up that little they have. | 7 |
| 124. Sense never fails to give them that have it, Words enough to make them understood. | 8 |
| 125. But it too often happens in some Conversations, as in Apothecary-Shops, that those Pots that are Empty, or have things of Small Value in them, are as gaudily Dress’d and Flourish’d, as those that are full of precious Drugs. | 9 |
| 126. This Laboring of slight Matter with flourish’d Turns of Expression, is fulsome, and worse than the Modern Imitation of Tapestry, and East-India Goods, in Stuffs and Linnens. In short, ’t is but Taudry Talk, and next to very Trash. | 10 |
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