Read "Don't Talk When You've Nothing to Say" by Ella Wheeler Wilcox online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
It is well to be free in conversing, / It is well to be able to chat / With a friend on a subject of interest -- / With a stranger on this thing or that. / Don't aim to be cold or reticent, / But listen to reason I pray, / And remember this wisest of mottos, / "Don't talk when you've nothing to say."
A gay, lively friend, or companion, / With wits that are ready and quick, / Is better by far, than a stupid, / And unconversational stick. / Yet speech at the best is but silver, / While silence is golden alway. / And remember at all times and places, / Don't talk when you've nothing to say.
I like to see well informed people / Who know _what_ to say, _how_ and _when_. / And a little good nonsense and jesting / Is not out of place, now and then. / But I dread the approach of a Magpie, / Who chatters from grave themes to gay, / Who talks from the morn to the midnight, / And always with nothing to say.