We might imagine that everyone tries to be thoughtful. And yet when we consider two things in our daily life -- when silence is needed and when speech -- we find that we make a thousand mistakes. Often we speak more than we need to speak; or we give our confidence to someone to whom it would have been better not to have given it, or we have spoken to someone and we should not have done it. But it is too late when we think of it afterwards. Sometimes in a mood of haste, or opposition, or in a distressed condition, a person might say something hurtful without meaning it. He says it and then he repents. By speaking he has not gained anything, except that it might have been a pastime, it has released a desire to say something. But afterwards it has a result just the same.