silence is golden

English

Etymology

Calque of Latin silentium est aureum (“silence is golden”).

Proverb

silence is golden

1. Peace and quiet have great value.
   • 1877, Charles Reade, chapter 21, in A Woman-Hater‎^[1]:

     "[I] adore good music, I hate bad, and I despise mediocre. Silence is golden, indeed, compared with poor music."

2. Often the best choice is to say nothing.
   • 1897, Horatio Alger, chapter 2, in Walter Sherwood's Probation:

     But I have spoken long enough. There are times when silence is golden, and one of those times is at hand.

   • 1987 April 4, T.R. Witomski, “witomski responds to readers' response to witomski (letter)”, in Gay Community News, page 6:

     I shouldn't lower myself to respond to the personal attacks on me, but silence, as the current scandal plaguing the federal administration shows, isn't golden.

Related terms

• speech is silver, silence is golden

Translations

proverb

• Arabic: اَلسُّكُوتُ مِن ذَهَبٍ (as-sukūtu min ḏahabin)
• Bulgarian: мълча́нието е зла́то (mǎlčánieto e zláto)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 沉默是金 (zh) (chénmò shì jīn)

• Czech: mlčeti zlato
• Danish: tale er sølv, tavshed er guld
• Finnish: vaikeneminen on kultaa
• French: le silence est d’or
• German: Schweigen ist Gold
• Greek: η σιωπή είναι χρυσός (i siopí eínai chrysós)
• Hebrew: שְׁתִיקָה שָׁוָה זָהָב (he) (shtiqà shavà zahàv)
• Hungarian: hallgatni arany (hu)
• Icelandic: þögn er gulls ígildi, enginn er allheimskur ef þegja má (literally “no one is completely stupid if they can hold their silence”)
• Indonesian: diam itu emas
• Italian: il silenzio è d'oro
• Japanese: 沈黙は金雄弁は銀 (chinmoku wa kin yūben wa gin), 言わぬが花 (ja) (いわぬがはな, iwanu ga hana, literally “not saying is a flower”)
• Latin: silentium est aurum
• Macedonian: молчењето е злато (molčenjeto e zlato)
• Polish: milczenie jest złotem
• Portuguese: o silêncio é ouro
• Russian: сло́во — серебро́, молча́ние — зо́лото (slóvo — serebró, molčánije — zóloto), молча́ние — зо́лото (molčánije — zóloto)
• Scottish Gaelic: 's fhearr a bhith sàmhach na droch dhan a ghabhail, cha déid cuileag am beul dùinte, am fear a ghléidheas a theangaidh, ghléidhidh e a charaid
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: ћутање је злато

  Roman: ćutanje je zlato

• Spanish: el silencio es oro, por la boca muere el pez
• Swedish: tiga är guld
• Vietnamese: im lặng là vàng