Superfluous Words

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**Imitation of Christ **

by Thomas Kempis

The Tenth Chapter

Avoiding Idle Talk

SHUN the gossip of men as much as possible, for discussion of worldly affairs, even though sincere, is a great distraction inasmuch as we are quickly ensnared and captivated by vanity.

Many a time I wish that I had held my peace and had not associated with men. Why, indeed, do we converse and gossip among ourselves when we so seldom part without a troubled conscience? We do so because we seek comfort from one another’s conversation and wish to ease the mind wearied by diverse thoughts. Hence, we talk and think quite fondly of things we like very much or of things we dislike intensely. But, sad to say, we often talk vainly and to no purpose; for this external pleasure effectively bars inward and divine consolation.

Therefore we must watch and pray lest time pass idly.

When the right and opportune moment comes for speaking, say something that will edify.

Bad habits and indifference to spiritual progress do much to remove the guard from the tongue. Devout conversation on spiritual matters, on the contrary, is a great aid to spiritual progress, especially when persons of the same mind and spirit associate together in God.
 
Rule of St Benedict, chapter 4

Guard your lips against foolish or deceptive speech. Prefer moderation in speech, and speak no foolish chatter, nothing just to provoke laughter; do not love immoderate or boisterous laughter.

Chapter 6, Restraint of Speech
I have put a guard on my mouth. I was silent and was humbled, and I refrained even from good words. Here the Prophet indicates that there are times when good words are to be left unsaid out of esteem for silence. For all the more reason should evil speech be curbed. . . . it is written, In a flood of words you shall not avoid sin. … we absolutely condemn . . . vulgarity, gossip and talk leading to laughter.
 
Be consistent in your thoughts; steadfast be your words.
Be swift to hear, but slow to answer.
If you have the knowledge, answer your neighbor; if not, put your hand over your mouth.
Honor and dishonor through talking! A man’s tongue can be his downfall.
Be not called a detractor; use not your tongue for calumny;
For shame has been created for the thief, and the reproach of his neighbor for the double-tongued.
Say nothing harmful, small or great; be not a foe instead of a friend; A bad name and disgrace will you acquire: “That for the evil man with double tongue!” (Sirach 5:12-17; 6:1,5)

He who gloats over evil will meet with evil, and he who repeats an evil report has no sense.
Never repeat gossip, and you will not be reviled.
Tell nothing to friend or foe; if you have a fault, reveal it not,
For he who hears it will hold it against you, and in time become your enemy.
Let anything you hear die within you; be assured it will not make you burst.
When a fool hears something, he is in labor, like a woman giving birth to a child.
Like an arrow lodged in a man’s thigh is gossip in the breast of a fool. (Sirach 19:5-11)

He who keeps the law controls his impulses; he who is perfect in fear of the LORD has wisdom.
He can never be taught who is not shrewd, but one form of shrewdness is thoroughly bitter.
A wise man’s knowledge wells up in a flood, and his counsel, like a living spring;
A fool’s mind is like a broken jar-- no knowledge at all can it hold.
When an intelligent man hears words of wisdom, he approves them and adds to them; The wanton hears them with scorn and casts them behind his back.
A fool’s chatter is like a load on a journey, but there is charm to be found upon the lips of the wise.
The views of a prudent man are sought in an assembly, and his words are considered with care.
Like a house in ruins is wisdom to a fool; the stupid man knows it only as inscrutable words.
Like fetters on the legs is learning to a fool, like a manacle on his right hand.
A fool raises his voice in laughter, but the prudent man at the most smiles gently.
Like a chain of gold is learning to a wise man, like a bracelet on his right arm.
The fool steps boldly into a house, while the well-bred man remains outside;
A boor peeps through the doorway of a house, but a cultured man keeps his glance cast down.
It is rude for one to listen at a door; a cultured man would be overwhelmed by the disgrace of it.
The lips of the impious talk of what is not their concern, but the words of the prudent are carefully weighed.
Fools’ thoughts are in their mouths, wise men’s words are in their hearts.
When a godless man curses his adversary he really curses himself.
A slanderer besmirches himself, and is hated by his neighbors.
(Sirach 21:11-28)
 
Would some people be willing to post specific examples of superflous speech in action? I’ve had trouble with understanding just what is and isn’t it. For example, when I see my brother I often joke with him as the first thing. It works well to show him I’m glad to see him. He is very secular and I’m much older than him. I could have gone with the serious elder over the years, but instead I’ve gone with the teasing elder who can be relied upon to be there for him. That role fits better into our family mix. It could be taken that my words are just to make him laugh, but from my perspective that is not the case. They tell him in a comfortable way that I am very glad to see him, and him specifically, because I joke only with him in that certain way, and not my other brother. The other one gets his own form of greeting.

Huh, maybe I guess examples of what is good joking and good non-superflous interaction. Honestly, I don’t know how to build up social bonds without some teasing and joking and extra chat beyond “edifying” stuff. I build bonds with interested questions about hostas and lilies and water features and whether or not Hickory is better than Mesquite (it is, by the way).
 
I wish I remember who had said this.

It seems like it was Winston Churchill, but I don’t know.

Anyway he was criticized for being too wordy by somebody – I don’t know, an editor or rival or something. The response came as a letter with three words: “SIMPLIFY, SIMPLIFY, SIMPLIFY.”

Churchill wrote back, “One ‘simplify’ would have sufficed.”
 
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AlanFromWichita:
Churchill wrote back, “One ‘simplify’ would have sufficed.”
Click to expand...
😃

Alan, are you sure you’re allowed to post on a thread about superfluous words? I’ve seen your other posts! They’re LOOOOOOONG.🙂
 
Alan, are you sure you’re allowed to post on a thread about superfluous words? I’ve seen your other posts! They’re LOOOOOOONG.🙂
[/quote]

I’m bipolar. That’s my excuse for everything.

In this case, it’s in the context that I go to extremes. 😉

Up, down. Good, evil. Happy, sad. Verbose, terse. :bounce:

Alan
 
better to keep your mouth shut and be thought a fool, than to open your mouth and prove it (A. Lincoln)
 
**Ill deeds are doubled with an evil word. **
William Shakespeare
 
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puzzleannie:
better to keep your mouth shut and be thought a fool, than to open your mouth and prove it (A. Lincoln)
Click to expand...
“Even a fish wouldn’t get caught if he kept his mouth shut.”
 
The Rule of Benedict

Chapter 7: On Humility

The ninth degree of humility

is that a monk restrain his tongue and keep silence,
not speaking until he is questioned.
For the Scripture shows
that “in much speaking there is no escape from sin” (Prov. 10:19)
and that “the talkative man is not stable on the earth” (Ps. 139:12).
 
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Pug:
Would some people be willing to post specific examples of superflous speech in action? I’ve had trouble with understanding just what is and isn’t it.
Click to expand...
I wish I could be of more help to you, but it is not a problem I personally struggle with. I’m basically a reserved person and a man of few words --the strong, silent type they used to call it (having said that, there are **plenty ** of other things I do struggle with. This isn’t just one of them).

I would suspect it has something to do with with remaining silent when it is not necessary to speak. Even though conversation is vital for communicating and building/maintaining relationships, a person doesn’t have to remark on every single thing around them. I’ve observed people shopping or whatever that seem to feel the need to narrate everything they do as they do it. I’ve been at restaurants where a person at the next table will talk literally non-stop for an hour. I’ve even watched three-hour baseball games where a person sitting in the stands behind homeplate will talk, again literally non-stop, to the person next to them or on the cell-phone! I think some people are very uncomfortable with silence, and I think it is even more so in our time because we are constantly surrounded by noise by all the electronic media we have on our lives. Even at Mass, every second has to filled up with something, even if it is the tinkling of piano keys during the Preparation of the Gifts.

I just read an interesting article in the Pastoral and Homiletic Review that says most people have lost the capacity to cultivate a spirit of prayer, meditation, contemplation and recollection. For most people to sit quietly and unoccupied in adoration of Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament is, at first anyway, sheer torture. I suspect this is what the old spiritual writers were getting at, though they had much less noise around them.
 
Case example: Al Sharpton

I also tend to be verbose and animate my words.
I use words liberally to entertain in conversation.

Sure, be humble and what have you…
But that doesn’t mean you have to lower your syntaxial protocol for the sake of one’s sub-intellect.
 
“Doing leads more surely to talking than talking to doing.”
Anonymous
 
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Fidelis:
they had much less noise around them.
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Fidelis,

Thanks for offering your thoughts on this issue. I welcome anyone else’s comments too. I used to be uncomfortable with silence in the presence of others. I felt I had to say something. I’ve gotten over that, thank the Lord.

I agree, silence seems uncommon these days. You cannot sit in a doctor’s office or hopsital without having a large, loud tv hanging from the ceiling. We distract ourselves rather than turn to God in silence. For some, it is the constant radio in the car. Chatter may well be designed to distract from what is not within as well. Perhaps this is what I am doing when I talk too much.
 
I just spent 3 glorious days in silence at a monastery. There is nothing better than Grand Silence after 7pm…ahhh
It seems a shame that I must escape to a monastery to get some real silence away from telephones, computer chatter. TVs etc. We are our own worse enemies. All we need to do is flick the power switches off and to listen to God. We simply won’t hear God without silence in our hearts and lives.
 
We must strive for a quiet mind. The eye cannot appreciate an object set before it if it is perpetually restless, glancing here, there and everywhere. No more can our mind’s eye apprehend the truth with any clarity if it is distracted by a thousand worldly concerns.

For just as it is impossible to write upon a wax tablet without first having erased the marks on it, so it is impossible to receive the impress of divine doctrine without unlearning our inherited preconceptions and habitual prejudices. Solitude offers an excellent opportunity in this process because it calms our passions, and creates space for our reason to remove their influence.

Tranquility is indeed the first step in the process of our sanctification, for through it our conversation is purged of idle gossip; our eyes are enabled to concentrate without searching for beautiful bodies to ogle at; our ears are not forever assaulted by invasive noise or worse still, by superficial chatter or revelry. With our senses thus reoriented, our attention is no longer dissipated and our mind is thrown back upon itself.

St. Basil the Great
 
So, it sounds as though Thomas Kempis would not have been a fan of internet discussion forums.
 
Then the LORD said, “Go outside and stand on the mountain before the LORD; the LORD will be passing by.” A strong and heavy wind was rending the mountains and crushing rocks before the LORD–but the LORD was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake–but the LORD was not in the earthquake.
After the earthquake there was fire–but the LORD was not in the fire. After the fire there was a tiny whispering sound.
When he heard this, Elijah hid his face in his cloak and went and stood at the entrance of the cave. ( I Kings 19:11-13 )

Prayer:

Oh God of silence - quiet my busy and noisy soul.
 
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