To avoid criticism, say nothing, do nothing, be nothing.

-Anonymous
Inscription on a pillow given Claudia ('Lady Bird')  Johnson by her staff. Quoted in Life,  Apr1995.

Herbert Asquith's clarity is a great liability because he has nothing to say.

-Balfour, ArthurJames Balfour, 1st Earl
Quoted by George Will in Newsweek, 9 Sep1991.

The trouble is that I have to go with so much still to say.

-Barto¤  k, Be¤  la
  Spoken on his deathbed. Quoted in David Pickering Brewer's Twentieth Century Music (1994).

I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now.

-Bible (NewTestament)
St  John16:12.

'Then you should say what you mean,'the March Hare went on. 'Ido,'Alicehastily replied; 'at leastöat least Imeanwhat I sayöthat's the same thing, you know.' 'Not the same thing a bit! 'said the Hatter.'Why, you might just as well say that ''I see what I eat'' is the same thing as ''I eat what I see!'''

-Dodgson
  Alice's  Adventures in Wonderland, ch.7, 'A Mad Tea-Party'.

When you have nothing to say, say nothing.

-Colton, Charles Caleb
  Lacon, vol.1, no.183.

For even bad poetry has relevance for what it does not say for what it leaves out.

-Ferlinghetti, Lawrence
  'Uses of Poetry'.

My people and I have come to an agreement that satisfies us both. Theyare to say what they please, and I am to do what I please.

-Frederick II, the Great
Attributed.

   Sing 'Booh to youö Pooh, pooh to you'ö And that's what I shall say!

-Gilbert, Sir W(illiam) S(chwenck)
  Jane and Bunthorne's duet, Patience, act 2.

   It is really intolerable that we can say only one thing at a time; for social behavior displays many features at the same time, and so in taking them up one by one we necessarily do outrage to its rich, dark, organic unity.

-Homans, George C
Social Behavior: Its Elementary Forms.

That man must be very much absorbed in reflection, or stupid, or sulky, or unhappy, or a mere hog at his trough, who is not moved to say something when he dines.

-Hunt, (James Henry) Leigh
Table-Talk,'Table- Talk'.

O say, can you see, by the dawn's early light, What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleamingö Whose broad stripes and bright stars, through the clouds of the fight, O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming! Keynes And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air, Gave proof through thenight that our flag was still there; O! say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave O'er the land of the free, and the home of the brave?

-Key, Francis Scott
  'The Star-Spangled Banner', originally published as'The Defence of Fort M'Henry' in the Baltimore Patriot, 20 Sep; it commemorates the bombardment of Fort McHenry, Baltimore, by the British,13^14 Sep.

I've still so much music in my head.I have said nothing. I have so much more to say.

-Ravel, (Joseph) Maurice
  Spoken on his deathbed. Quoted inJourdan-Morhange Ravel et nous (1945).

We must say something but not much because I'm being held out to dry.

-Reagan, Ronald Wilson
  Comment at a meeting with National Security Council advisers,10 Nov. Quoted byTheodore Draper AVeryThin Line (1991).

Quand une femme me para|"t belle, je n'ai rien a'   en dire. Je la vois sourire, tout simplement. Les intellectuels de¤  montent le visage, pour l'expliquer par les morceaux, mais ils ne voient plus le sourire. When I find a woman attractive, I have nothing at all to say. I simply watch her smile. Intellectuals take apart her face in order to explain it bit by bit, but they no longer see the smile.

-Saint-Exupe¤  ry, Antoine de
  Pilote de guerre.

I am a woman of the world, Hector; and I can assure you that if you will only take the trouble always to do the perfectly correct thing, and to say the perfectly correct thing, you can do just what you like.

-Shaw, George Bernard
  Lady Utterword to Hector Hushabye. Heartbreak House, act1.

The sovereign'st thing that any man may have Is little to say, and much to hear and see.

-Skelton,John
  The Bouge of Court, l. 211.

When I do not understand, I like to say nothing.

-Sophocles
OedipusTyrannus, 569 (translated by H Lloyd-Jones,1994).

When you see millions of the mouthless dead Across your dreams in pale battalions go, Say not soft things as other men have said, That you'll remember. For you need not so. Give them not praise. For, deaf, how should they know It is not curses heaped on each gashed head?

-Sorley, Charles Hamilton
Marlborough and Other Poems,'A Sonnet' (published1916).

Nil est dictu facilius. Nothing is easier to say.

-Terence full name PubliusTerentius Afer
  BC  Phormio, 300.