The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs (515 page)

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SPEECH is silver, but silence is golden
See also the abbreviated form
SILENCE is
golden
.
1834
in
Fraser's Magazine
June 668
As the Swiss Inscription says:
Sprechen ist silbern
,
Schweigen ist golden
(Speech is silvern, Silence is golden).
1865
Secret Service
ii.
A taciturn but edified listener, I pondered upon .. ‘speech is silver, while silence is golden.’
1936
South Riding
I
. iv.
She will give a pound note to the collection if I would cut my eloquence short, so in this case, though speech is silver, silence is certainly golden.
1961
Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
i.
Speech is silver but silence is golden. Mary, are you listening?
speech and silence
What you SPEND, you have
c
1300
in
Catalogue of Library Pembroke College
(1905) 35
That ich et [I ate] that ich hadde. That ich gaf that ich habbe. That ich ay held that i nabbe [do not have].
1579
Shepherd's Calendar
(May) 56 (Glossary)
Ho, ho, who lies here? I the good Earle of Deuonshere, And Maulde my wife, that was ful deare … That we spent, we had: That we gaue, we haue: That we lefte we lost.
1773
Letter
12 Aug. (1952) I. 338
The monument of Robert of Doncaster .. says .. something like this. What I gave, that I have; what I spent, that I had; what I left that I lost.
1862
Times
15 Dec. 8
The most common maxim of the rank and file of British industry is that what you spend you have for it alone cannot be taken away from you.
getting and spending

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