Speech is silver, silence is golden

This is an ancient proverb, which extols the value of silence over and above the value of spoken words. The concept, but not the actual expression, appears in many ancient texts including the Bible, but the first juxtaposition of silver versus gold originates in Arabic culture as early as the 9th century, and made its way into Western European culture by the 14th century. Its appearance in English in the form 'speech is silver, silence is golden', however, is fairly recent and is first cited from the early 19th century. 'Silence is golden' is often used on its own but the 'speech is silver' part is generally understood.