American Indian Silence
Charles Eastman (Ohiyesa), a Santee Dakota physician and writer, wrote in The Soul of the Indian: An Interpretation (1911):
The wise man believes profoundly in silence, the sign of a perfect equilibrium. Silence is the absolute poise or balance of body, mind, and spirit. The man who preserves his selfhood ever calm and unshaken by the storms of existence... is the ideal conduct of life.
Be silent.