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)