Calvin Coolidge, the thirtieth President of the United States, was known as a man of few words. Once, at a White House dinner, a woman told him she’d made a bet that she could get him to say at least three words. Coolidge looked at her and said: ‘You lose.’
It was Shakespeare who gave us those famous words: ‘Brevity is the soul of wit,’ meaning that intelligent conversation is characterized by the use of just a few well chosen words, rather than endless talking. Indeed, I’ve usually found that people who begin a conversation by saying things like: ‘now I won’t keep you long,’ usually end up boring me to tears.
In this respect, it’s good to remember the wise words of the Bible: ‘Dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry.’