German

German proverbs, at a glance

• Speech is silver, silence is gold

  Reden ist Silber, Schweigen ist Gold

  Literally: Speaking is silver, keeping-silent is gold

  German · Germany

  Set beside

  • Arabic — *الكلام من فضة والسكوت من ذهب*, the source the German proverb came from before nineteenth-century Europe began calling it German
  • Russian — *слово серебро, молчание золото*, a calque from the German that re-domesticated the line into Russian peasant speech
  • Mandarin — *沉默是金*, the proverb stripped down to its second clause and used as a slogan rather than a balance