http://www.perlmonks.org?node_id=607810


in reply to I blog...

Not sure who said it but
It's better to keep your mouth shut and have people wonder at your intellect than to open it and remove all doubt.
If anyone knows the exact quote and/or who said it, let me know :-)

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Re^2: I blog...
by grinder (Bishop) on Apr 02, 2007 at 13:28 UTC

    "It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open one's mouth and remove all doubt." — Abraham Lincoln

    update: hmmm, then again, even though there are lots of pages that attribute this to Lincoln, it definitely has a Twain-ish ring to it. Unfortunately I am unable to find an authorative reference one way or another.

    • another intruder with the mooring in the heart of the Perl

      Via Google and some secondary links, this has also been attributed to Voltaire, Samuel Johnson, Groucho Marx, Silvan Engel, Woodrow Wilson, Oscar Wilde, George Elliot, Confucius, Anonymous, and "an old Yiddish saying".

      However, apparently Samuel Johnson can be ruled out.

      Thanks. I was thinking Mark Twain, but couldn't find it.
        The quote is by Mark Twain but I'm not sure what the direct quote is.
Re^2: I blog...
by cdarke (Prior) on Apr 05, 2007 at 09:00 UTC
    You may mean: "Better to keep your mount shut and appear stupid than to open it and remove all doubt".
    Attributed to Mark Twain (or whatever he was calling himself), in "The Sayings of Mark Twain", James Munson. May be apocryphal.
    From a real paper book (!): The Oxford Dictionary of Humorous Quotations, by Ned Sherrin.
    I'll shut-up now.
Re^2: I blog...
by apl (Monsignor) on Apr 02, 2007 at 18:45 UTC
    I had a vague recollection that it was Mark Twain...