QUOTATION: Sins of Speech

A loose and glib tongue easily becomes the vehicle of blasphemy and murmuring. The tongue that wags will be guilty of perjury, lying and detraction. The sin of flattery is easy to it. So too, cursing, abusive language, quarrelsome words, and words which mockingly contemn virtue and entice to evil deeds. Scandalous gossip, vain boasting, the divulging of secrets, idle threats, rash promises, frequent and silly chattering and scurrilous conversation : all these sins come lightly, smoothly, and easily from an unguarded tongue.

--St. Bonaventure, Holiness of Life

QUOTATION: Useless Words

Our Lord warns us that we shall render an account for every useless word. What will it be for those words against authority, those back- biting words, those words against God's goodness, those words against the poor of Jesus Christ, against the lowly who are already humiliated by their inferiority, whatever it may be!

--St. Peter Julian Eymard

QUOTATION: Kind Words

You will accomplish more by kind words and a courteous manner than by anger or sharp rebuke.

--St. Angela Merici

QUOTATION: Speech

Henceforward consider your neighbor's character as a forbidden tree which you cannot touch. Be no less slow in praising yourself

than in censuring others, for the first indicates vanity and the second a want of charity. Speak of the virtues of your neighbor, but be silent as to his faults. Let nothing that you say lead others to think that he is naught but a man of virtue and honor. You will thus avoid innumerable sins and much remorse of conscience; you will be pleasing to God and men; and you will be respected by all as you respect others.

--Louis de Granada, The Sinner's Guide

QUOTATION: Few Words, Many Deeds

Remember that the Christian life is one of action; not of speech and daydreams. Let there be few words and many deeds, and let them be done well.

--St. Vincent Pallotti

QUOTATION: Rules of Speech

How good and peaceful to be silent about others, not to believe without discrimination all that is said, not easily to report it further.

--Thomas a Kempis

QUOTATION: Chatter

This is probably the most talkative age in the history of the world--not only because we have more mechanical devices to diffuse our talking but also because we have little inside our minds that did not come from the world outside our minds....there are few listeners, although Saint Paul tells us that 'faith comes from hearing.' If the bodies of most of us were fed as little as the mind, they would soon starve to death. Hyperactivity and love of noise and chatter characterize our age, as a compensation for the profound distrust human beings have of themselves.

--Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, Lift Up Your Heart

QUOTATION: Filthy Talk

Filthy talk makes us feel comfortable with filthy action. But the one who knows how to control the tongue is prepared to resist the attacks of lust.

--St. Clement of Alexandria

QUOTATION: The Essence of Christianity

Remember that the Christian life is one of action, not speech and daydreams.

--St.Vincent Pallotti

QUOTATION: Speech

Saint James says, “If any man offend not in word, the same is, a perfect man.” Beware most watchfully against ever uttering any unseemly expression; even though you may have no evil intention, those who hear it may receive it with a different meaning. An impure word falling upon a weak mind spreads its infection like a drop of oil on a garment, and sometimes it will take such a hold of the heart, as to fill it with an infinitude of lascivious thoughts and temptations… Our Lord, Who knoweth the hearts of men, has said, “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.” And even if we do mean no harm, the Evil One means a great deal, and he will use those idle words as a sharp weapon against some neighbour's heart… As to unclean and light-minded talk, St. Paul says such things should not even be named among us, for, as he elsewhere tells us, “Evil communications corrupt good manners.”

--St. Francis de Sales

QUOTATION: A Soft Answer

A soft answer puts away wrath, as water puts out fire.

--St. Francis de Sales

QUOTATION: A Gentle Answer

Some say it is unreasonable to be courteous and gentle with a reckless person who insults you for no reason at all. I have made a pact with my tongue; not to speak when my heart is disturbed.

-- St. Francis de Sales

QUOTATION: Answering Back

When we have to reply to anyone who has insulted us,we should be careful.A soft answer extinguishes the fire of wrath.

--St. Alphonsus Liguori

QUOTATION: The Talkative Soul

The Lord gave me to know how displeased He is with a talkative soul. I find no rest in such a soul. The constant din tires Me, and in the midst of it the soul cannot discern My voice.

--St. Faustina Kowalska

QUOTATION: Talkativeness

The Holy Spirit does not speak to a soul that is distracted and garrulous. He speaks by His quiet inspirations to a soul that is recollected, to a soul that knows how to keep silence.

--St. Faustina Kowalska

QUOTATION: Gossip

Do not listen to talk about other people's sins. For through such listening the form of these sins is imprinted on you.

--St. Mark the Ascetic

QUOTATION: A Talkative Soul

A talkative soul is empty inside. It lacks both the essential virtues and intimacy with God. A deeper interior life, one of gentle peace and of that silence where the Lord dwells, is quite out of the question.

--St. Faustina Kowalska

QUOTATION: Answering and Keeping Silent

We are sensitive to words and quickly want to answer back, without taking any regard as to whether it is God’s will that we should speak. A silent soul is strong; no adversities will harm it, if it perseveres in silence. The silent soul is capable of attaining the closest union with God.

--St. Faustina Kowalska

QUOTATION: Silence

A soul that has never tasted the sweetness of inner silence is a restless spirit which disturbs the silence of others. I have seen many souls in the depths of hell for not having kept their silence.

--St. Faustina Kowalska

QUOTATION: Filthy Talk

Filthy talk makes us feel comfortable with filthy action. But the one who knows how to control the tongue is prepared to resist the attacks of lust.

--St. Clement of Alexandria