SO GOOD QUOTES

“We learned quickly, however, that freshly picked oranges were not the best for making orange juice. The best were the ones that had been set aside for a week or ten days. These were the sweetest. The sour edge is taken off with time. 

I have found the same thing is true about what we say—the juice of our soul, you might say. I have found that it is usually better for me to say nothing at the beginning, at the moment I feel like saying something. At that moment, it is usually best not to say anything because if I say something the very moment I feel like saying it, the juice is not sweet. It’s sour. And no matter how true or right what I have to say is, all the hearer notices is the sour, bitter, angry or judgmental note hidden in my words. Even when I do not intend to communicate anything but truth and edification, a bit of the bitterness or arrogance or prejudice of my own soul slips in and somehow sours the entire message.”
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O Lord Jesus Christ, grant me the strength to keep silent in knowledge, and the grace to know when it is necessary to speak without passion.
—St. Barsanuphius

On Remaining Silent, Praying in the Rain
Fr. Michael Gillis