“Let your speech be patient and your silence thoughtful, for the wise man speaks so as to teach, not to wound.”
—Isidore of Seville (c 560 – 636 AD)
Source: Isidore of Seville, Sententiae, trans. Thomas L. Knoebel, in Isidore of Seville: Sententiae, vol. 3 of Ancient Christian Writers: The Works of the Fathers in Translation, ed. Thomas C. Oden (New York: Newman Press, 2001), 3.15.5, p. 75.
Reflective Question: In moments of tension or disagreement, how might I cultivate speech that teaches with grace rather than reacts with harm—and silence that listens with wisdom rather than withdraws in judgment?