Qualis vir, talis oratio.
(Anonymous)

However the man is, so also his speech.

(pron = KWAH-lis weer, TAH-lis oh-RAH-tee-oh)

Comment: Both Seneca and Publilius Syrus have written this same line, almost
identically, so it is not really anonymous. And, one can easily amass quite a
long list of quotations about the correspondence between a human being's life
and speech--or the lack of such correspondence. An internet search produced
such a list within 10 seconds, and as I read those quotations, the word
"integrity" kept coming to my mind.

Really, if we are honest, there is only a correspondence between our lives and
our speech if we have some degree of integrity--some wholeness--to us. One
quotation from an Anglican Bishop of the 17th century (Bishop Robert South)
proclaimes that speech was given to ordinary folks in order to proclaim their
minds, but to wise individuals in order that they might conceal their minds.
He seems to identify the ability to separate one's language from one's life as
a virtue.

I think there may be some real value in knowing when to keep silent. I fail
often enough at that one! I have also often enough experienced the power of
knowing when to keep silent and the power of those occassions when my words do
aline with my life. Speech, which for me is so easy to pump out of my face in
almost any occassion, really only has strength and power when it consults my
life first. And, when my speech has been otherwise, it is either the waste of
breath, or damaging.