When contemplating the gifts that silence brings, the above quote came to mind. So, I did a little research on gold and found something interesting.
Throughout all of human history and pre-history, gold has been treasured and prized above all other metals. I wondered what the correlation was between gold and silence – what could have possibly been the reason to link these two and where did the quote come from anyway?
Turns out it comes from an Arabic writing from the 9th century – “Speech is silver, silence is golden” is a proverb extolling the value of silence over speech. Interesting, to be sure, but it doesn’t explain exactly why.
Gold is prized above silver, because though the two have the similarity of being called Noble Elements, silver tarnishes whereas gold does not.
But what is it about Gold and Silver that makes them Noble Elements? They are called Noble because they stand apart and don’t react with other elements. Bingo! The value of silence is that we have the opportunity to be Golden – to stand alone and not react to what’s around us.
Thank you for your research. We have the opportunity to be golden and see and listen and remember that we are part of all that surrounds us.
In Sweden we use this proverb a lot, but we never think about where it comes from or why using those noble elements for that proverb. Thank you so much for sharing that knowledge and so interesting with the resemblance about silence and silver/gold. Thank you so much for sharing that too!
Wow, Mary, what an incredibly interesting point of view! Thank you so much for doing the research and sharing that with us. My grandmother always encouraged me to pay attention to the fact that God gave us 2 ears and 1 mouth as a hint on which is more important.