10 Times When You’re Better Off Saying Nothing at All

[pbmus]

You know the saying that sometimes the best thing to say is nothing at all?

You’ve probably read before about the key phrases that greatest leaders say every day.

But great leaders are also wise when it comes to the opposite strategy: Sometimes, the smartest thing to say is nothing at all.

I’m not referring here simply to the advice your mother might have given you about keeping your mouth shut if you don’t have anything nice to say. Instead, think of the big moments when people come close to achieving goals, accomplishing great things, or even just developing good relationships and encouraging people to like them more. Sometimes, a simple slip of the tongue can set them back and destroy all they’ve worked for.

http://time.com/94555/10-times-youre-better-off-saying-nothing-at-all/

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This is especially true on blogs

[Brigid]

1. I love #4!

[Fumesucker]

2. It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt n/t

[JayhawkSD]

3. When trying to think of a word.

This is a trick my debate coach taught me. He pointed out that when speaking extemporaneously everyone has to pause from time to time to think of the right word. If you make that pause silently you sound very intelligent. If you fill that pause with a verbal sound, "uh," or "um" or "er" or such, as nine out of ten people do today, you sound like an idiot.

This is one of the things that drives me up the wall about Obama. He uses the verbal pause so frequently that he starts to sound like a moron after a while. If he would pause silently, he would sound as good speaking off the cuff as he does when giving prepered speeches. It astounds me that no advisor has ever given him this tip.