As the Swiss inscription says: Sprechen ist silbern, Schweigen ist golden — “Speech is silvern, Silence is golden”; or, as I might rather express it: speech is of time, silence is of eternity.

Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) Scottish essayist and historian

Sartor Resartus, Book 3, ch. 3 (1834)
    (Source)

Quoting Herr Teufelsdröckh.

This chapter first appeared in Fraser's Magazine for Town and Country, Vol. 9, No. 54 (1834-06) - Book 3, ch. 1-5.