Restraint from sending letters and speaking is itself a preservative life practice

Evidence

Those are my slides. I have a few final words, of a more intimate sort. … Well, that is not my case. I owe my longevity, I am sure, to two things: (1) The letters I have written and decided not to send; and (2) The clever things I started to say—and decided to abstain. It was my own personal view, you see, of the preservative quality of Planned in action. — Freeman Tilden, Interpreting Our Heritage, 781

Categorization

• APHORISMS: Almost a life-advice line: the unsent letter and the withheld clever remark preserve relationships and reputation — restraint as a form of care.
• XREF: connects to: Social precepts can become interiorized until external compulsion becomes unnecessary — Georg Simmel, The Sociology of Georg Simmel, 6435

Broader Connections

• Social precepts can become interiorized until external compulsion becomes unnecessary #expands (0.80) — Georg Simmel, The Sociology of Georg Simmel, 6435