Don’t write anything you can phone. Don’t phone anything you can talk. Don’t talk anything you can whisper. Don’t whisper anything you can smile. Don’t smile anything you can nod. Don’t nod anything you can wink.

Earl Kemp Long (1895–1960) American politician, orator.

(Attributed)

Advice on political discretion. Widely attributed to Long (the brother of Huey Long, governor of Louisiana multiple times in the 1940s–60s), but with no primary sourcing or particular context I can find. Quoted in his biography, Michael L. Kurtz, Earl K. Long: The Saga of Uncle Earl and Louisiana Politics, ch. 7 (1990).

A similar quote is attributed in an essay (1948-12) by A. D. Van Nostrand , "The Lomasaney Legend," The New England Quarterly, Vol. 21, No. 4, to Martin Lomasney (1859–1933), the long-time political boss of Boston's West End: "Don’t write when you can talk; don’t talk when you can nod your head."