The spirit of feeling is lost when a sentiment is expressed in words. If words did not exist, the power of man’s feelings would be a thousand times greater. The heart of man is vaster than the ocean. Every feeling therein is a wave rising in the sea, and when it is put into a word it becomes a pebble.

Yes, there is a beauty in words, as there is beauty in flowers. But the flowers may be called the angels of the earth. They live only in Heaven; on the earth they appear for a moment and fade away. The feelings are like angels. The one who lives in his feelings lives in Heaven; when he puts them into words he drops down on the earth. And, however beautiful his imagination and his choice of words, he turns angels into flowers. A person who really has some feeling, a person who has imagination, when he is silent it becomes a power, an ever increasing power.

Do you think a person who really loves need say, “I love you”? No, the word “love” cannot express his feeling, it is too small in comparison to what love means to him who truly loves.

Expression of sentiment is an outlet given to the energy of the heart, which if it had been conserved would have been a power in itself. A person who readily expresses an opinion about another, a list is produced by his word before his own eyes; he can see no further than what he sees. If he controlled that impulse of expressing his opinion it would be an effort at that moment, but it would open before him the vision revealing all that he would wish to know.

Sparing of words is the secret of sages. Most troubles and pains in life can be avoided by the economy of words. Silence is taught in every school of inner culture, especially in Sufism, which, plainly speaking, is quietism. Besides, when a person says one word to express his ideas instead of ten words, that one word becomes equal to a hundred words in power. The yes or no of a serious and silent person has more weight and has a greater influence than a hundred words of a talkative person.

No study can teach more than what silence can, no meditation is greater than silence itself. When the shell closes its lips pearls are formed. It is the heart of man which is the shell of the real pearls. By closing the lips all the beauty which is seen and heard is received in it, and there a pearl is formed which becomes as a philosopher’s stone.

It is man who is blessed with the power of self-control, not the animals, and when man shows in his character something which is beyond the power of the lower creation he proves himself to be human. It is self-discipline which leads to mastery. When the self is in one’s power the whole life is in one’s possession. That person becomes the conqueror of life who learns to control his tongue.