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Discretion is behaving and speaking in a way to avoid offence

• Discretion: The quality of behaving or speaking in such a way as to avoid causing offence or revealing confidential information.  Oxford Dictionary
• Right speech,  Tact,  Politeness and courtesy,  Gossip,  Loyalty,  Thoughtfulness,  Wisdom,  Caution,  Consideration

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Discretion is a prudent silence when circumstances warrant

• A prudent silence will frequently be taken for wisdom and a sentence or two cautiously thrown in will sometimes gain the palm of knowledge, while a man well informed but indiscreet and unreserved will not uncommonly talk himself out of all consideration and weight. Ron Chernow
• Silence

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Discretion is sometimes withholding the truth

• Real love amounts to withholding the truth, even when you’re offered the perfect opportunity to hurt someone’s feelings. David Sedaris
• Truth,  Honesty

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Discretion is sometimes withholding your thoughts

• Why must you speak your thoughts? Silence, if fair words stick in your throat, would serve all our ends better. J. R. R. Tolkien

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Discretion is not repeating mistakes

• A sound discretion is not so much indicated by never making a mistake as by never repeating it. Christian Nevell Bovee
• Mistakes

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Discretion can be a useful and desirable quality

• If we look into communities and divisions of men, we observe that the discreet man, not the witty, nor the learned, nor the brave, guides the conversation, and gives measure to society. Joseph Addison
• There are many more shining qualities in the mind of man, but there is none so useful as discretion. Joseph Addison
• Swift calls discretion low prudence; it is high prudence, and one of the most important elements entering into either social or political life. Edwin Hubbell Chapin
• He had a certain frankness and generosity, qualities indeed which turn to a man’s ruin, unless tempered with discretion. Tacitus
• Values to live by

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Discretion preserves life

• Discretion is the salt, and fancy the sugar of life; the one preserves, the other sweetens it. John Christian Bovee

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Discretion is important in friends and lovers

• Nothing is more dangerous than a friend without discretion; even a prudent enemy is preferable. Jean de La Fontaine
• A lover without discretion is no lover at all. Thomas Hardy
• Mutual respect implies discretion and reserve even in love itself; it means preserving as much liberty as possible to those whose life we share. We must distrust our instinct of intervention, for the desire to make one’s own will prevail is often disguised under the mask of solicitude. Henri Frederic Amiel
• Friendship,  Intimate relationships,  Romance

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Let discretion be your guide

• Discretion is the perfection of reason, and a guide to us in all the duties of life. Sir Walter Scott
• Be not too tame neither, but let your own discretion be your tutor: suit the action to the word, the word to the action. William Shakespeare

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Allow your passions to be guided by discretion

• It is difficult to say which is the greatest evil–to have too violent passions, or to be wholly devoid of them. Controlled with firmness, guided by discretion, and hallowed by the imagination, the passions are the vivifiers and quickeners of our being. Without passion, there can be no energy of character. Indeed, the passions are like fire, useful in a thousand ways, and dangerous only in one–through their excess. Christian Nestell Bovee
• Passion

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The better part of valour is discretion

• The better part of valour is discretion, in the which better part I have saved my life. William Shakespeare

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Discretion is not always for writers

• I cannot and do not live in the world of discretion, not as a writer, anyway. I would prefer to, I assure you — it would make life easier. But discretion is, unfortunately, not for novelists. Philip Roth
• Discretion is not the better part of biography. Lytton Strachey
• Writing

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Some argue against too much discretion

• Discretion is the polite word for hypocrisy. Christine Keeler
• Strive to make proposed solutions as self-executing as possible. As the degree of discretion increases, so too does bureaucracy, delay, and expense. Donald Rumsfeld
• Excess,  Moderation

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Combine talents and abilities with discretion

• A man with great talents, but void of discretion, is like Polyphemus in the fable, strong and blind, endued with an irresistible force, which for want of sight is of no use to him. Joseph Addison
• Notable talents are not necessarily connected with discretion. Junius
• Great ability without discretion comes almost invariably to a tragic end. Leon Michel Gambetta
• Talent

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Combine eloquence in speech with discretion

• Discretion in speech is more important than eloquence. English Proverb
• Great is our admiration of the orator who speaks with fluency and discretion. Marcus Tullius Cicero
• Discretion of speech is more than eloquence; and to speak agreeably to him with whom we deal is more than to speak in good words or in good order. Francis Bacon, Sr.
• Eloquence,  Right speech

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Combine wit with discretion

• Sometimes we meet a fool with wit, never one with discretion. François de la Rochefoucauld
• Wit without discretion is a sword in the hand of a fool. Spanish Proverb

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The most important time to be discrete is when you’re angry…

• Speak when you are angry and you will make the best speech you will ever regret. Ambrose Bierce
• Once a word has been allowed to escape, it cannot be recalled. Horace
• Dont mix bad words with your bad mood. You’ll have many opportunities to change a mood, but you’ll never get the opportunity to replace the words you spoke. Nishan Panwar
• The discretion of a man deferreth his anger; and it is his glory to pass over a transgression. Bible
• Anger

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… for harsh words can do greats damage

• There are words which sever hearts more than sharp swords; there are words the point of which sting the heart through the course of a whole life. Frederika Bremer
• Harsh words can hurt a person more than physical pain.
• Remember that cruel words deeply hurt. Remember that loving words quickly heal.  Jackson Brown, Jr.
• One should be cautions not to speak anything that hurts others. Such kind of speech never helps but always brings destruction. Rig Veda
• The tongue like a sharp knife… Kills without drawing blood. Buddha
• The tongue pierces deeper than the spear. Hazrat Ali

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Never miss a good chance to shut up

• The best time to hold your tongue is the time you feel you must say something or bust. Josh Billings
• A closed mouth catches no flies. French Proverb
• The real art of conversation is not only to say the right thing at the right place but to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment. Dorothy Nevill
• Never miss a good chance to shut up. Will Rogers
• Among my most prized possessions are words that I have never spoken. Orson Rega Card
• Drawing on my fine command of language, I said nothing. Robert Charles Benchley
• Discretion in speech is more important than eloquence. English Proverb
• An inability to stay quiet is one of the conspicuous failings of mankind. Walter Bagehot
• If you keep your mouth shut you will never put your foot in it. Austin O’Malley
• Be careful with your words. Once they’re said, they can only be forgiven, not forgotten. Hussein Nishah
• A person is master to those words they don’t say, and slave to the ones they do. John Reyes

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• Discretion is being able to raise your eyebrow instead of your voice.
• Discretion is the better part of not getting exsanguinated. Jim Butcher
• Discretion is not the better part of biography. Lytton Strachey
• Discretion: A sense that comes to a man too late to do him any good.
• Discretion: When you are sure you are right and then ask your wife.
• Forever poised between a cliché and an indiscretion. Harold Macmillan
• Judge: Mr. Smith have you ever heard of a saying by Bacon – the great Bacon – that youth and discretion are ill-wed companions?   E. Smith
• The first two-syllable word I learned when I was growing up was “discretion.”  Eamonn Dunphy

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