May 28

“Then again, there is that careless habit of ‘plain speaking’, and the way we have of pluming ourselves upon it, till it passes with some into overbearingness, and with others into acute disagreeability. We little think how much it jars persons more sensitive than ourselves, and how much suffering it gives! It is good to be plain spoken, but within the limits of charity. Still more mischievous is that looseness of tongue which proclaims everything that its owner has heard from another, without a thought whether the other may like what has been said, in a moment of abandon, to be proclaimed upon the house-tops, which seems to think that nothing is sacred to feeling, and that no seal of confession, though not exacted, ought to be laid upon the lips. That is abominable want of thought and love.”

STOPFORD BROOKE

“A constant governance of our speech, according to duty and reason, is a high instance and a special argument of a thoroughly sincere and solid goodness.”

BARROW