Words

Words. How precious they are when used as if they are precious indeed. How sweet the sound, when used well. For, we can make them pearls and diamonds or we can make them the cause of weeping and whips. Perhaps the most powerful feature on the face is the mouth, due to what it can emit. For this reason, silence has been declared, 'golden'. It is wiser to hold one's tongue, than it is to speak a word that may cause grief. But we live in a world where people are constantly prompted to speak and the silent one may not be viewed as favourably as the one that is constantly speaking. 

Words matter, yes. Some people can use them with eloquence. Some people stumble over them, some people use them as knives to cut others deep and hurt them beyond repair. Some people use them to woo and win friendship, some to destroy a life, with carefully woven lies. 

My high school principal gave the entire student body some wise advice some decades ago: Examine the way the mouth is constructed. The tongue is placed behind the lips, behind the teeth, and held in place by a lever beneath it. To speak is not always necessary. Think carefully before you do... 

She was an eloquent woman with powerful observation skills. Notice that the eyes don't have so many blocks in front of the lens.

I believe the more eloquent one becomes, the less one will have to say, because I think eloquence is a derivative of knowledge, skills, and abilities. The more one knows, the more one is able to speak with flow. So, I think rather than practice words and try to build a vocabulary by combing the dictionary, we should gain skills, secure knowledge, and develop our abilities. Then we will find that vocabulary and eloquence comes naturally. From a place of knowledge, skills, and abilities, one may choose to speak, or not...depending upon necessity. How pleasant it is to listen to such a person speak.