Speech is silver, silence is golden

Praise of silence can also be found in much older works, including the Bible, for example, "In the multitude of words there wanteth not sin, but he that refraineth his lips is wise."

[3] In 1999 David J. Wasserstein remarked that the "Eastern origin" mentioned by a number of earlier writers was most likely the Aramaic "shekels" proverb, as it connects speech, silence, and monetary value.

[1]: 257–258 According to Jente, the proverb became popular in Germany in the early 19th century, then spread to the English language, possibly through German immigrants in the United States.

[1]: 239  A similar saying, however, "discourse is silver, silence is gold", and attributed as a "Greek proverb", was printed in English as early as 1818 in a collection that reprinted material from the Researches in Greece (1814) of William Martin Leake.

[5] The proverb's origins and history of its earliest English-language appearances were already of interest to the English public by the second half of the 19th century, when the matter was discussed in a series of exchanges in the literary journal, Notes and Queries, in which several contributors commented on the question in the context of Carlyle's book.