Talking is like playing on the harp; there is as much in laying the hand on the strings to stop their vibrations as in twanging them to bring out their music.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809-1894) American poet, essayist, scholar

Article (1857-11), “The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table,” Atlantic Monthly
    (Source)

Collected in The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table, ch. 1 (1858)