Words not spoken in love, are like knocking on a door of an empty house. You can make a lot of noise but no one will respond.
Speech
Vincent de Paul
Let us beware of complaints, resentments, and evil-speaking against those who are ill-disposed to us, discontented with us, or hostile to our plans and arrangements, or who even persecute us with injuries, insults, and calumnies. Rather let us go on treating them as cordially as at first, or more so, as far as possible showing them esteem, always speaking well of them, doing them good, serving them on occasion, even to the point of taking shame and disgrace upon ourselves, if necessary to save their honor. All this ought to be done, first, to overcome evil with good, according to the teaching of the Apostles; and secondly, because they are our allies rather than our adversaries, as they aid us to destroy self-love, which is our greatest foe; and since it is they who give us an opportunity to gain merit, they ought to be considered our dearest friends.
Katherine Walden
Watch your words about someone else, and even more so when others are criticising them behind their backs then acting kindly to their faces. Be the ONE who dares to confront those who gossip about others. It has to stop somewhere. Be the one who reminds others that there is a dangerous line they are crossing. Do so with love but remember -love does not condone gossip.
John Bunyan
If thou wouldest be a good neighbour, take heed of thy tongue…That thou with it give no offensive language to thy neighbour, to the provoking of him to anger. Bear much, put up wrongs, and say little…And as thou shouldest take heed that thou be not the original of contention and anger, so also take heed that thou be not an instrument to beget it between parties, by tale-bearing and a gossiping spirit: “He that passeth by, and meddleth with strife belonging not to him, is like one that taketh a dog by the ears.”
Charles Swindoll
We need to think of our tongue as a messenger that runs errands for our heart. Our words reveal our character.
Blaise Pascal
Kind words do not cost much. They never blister the tongue or lips. They make other people good-natured. They also produce their own image on men’s souls, and a beautiful image it is.
Frederick W Faber
With the help of grace, the habit of saying kind words is very quickly formed, and when once formed, it is not speedily lost. Sharpness, bitterness, sarcasm, acute observation, divination of motives, – all these things disappear when a man is earnestly conforming himself to the image of Christ Jesus. The very attempt to be like our dearest Lord is already a well-spring of sweetness within us, flowing with an easy grace over all who come within our reach.
Charles Haddon Spurgeon
Our prayers may be very beautiful in appearance and might appear to be the very paragon of devotion, but unless there is a secret spiritual force in them, they are vain things.
Darlene Cunningham
I often say to others that I have “teeth marks on my tongue” from choosing NOT to speak when I am criticized or accused of something! Proverbs 10:19 says, “… he who holds his tongue is wise.” I want to develop a higher standard of self-control, asking God to help me filter my words.
John Wesley
Orthodoxy, or right opinion, is, at best, a very slender part of religion. Though right tempers cannot subsist without right opinions, yet right opinions may subsist without right tempers. There may be a right opinion of God without either love or one right temper toward Him. Satan is a proof of this.