Confucius. Unsaid by omission or by premeditation ? --- I will take advantage of the delicate Chinese flavour that caresses our language course, to bring a Confucius' perspective on the unsaid.

The Master is quoted to have said: "it is difficult to liver up to one's word, a man cannot but but be unhurried in speaking". (Analects renovated, Dr. Alan Chan, QUFU Confucius Neo-Institute).

The commentator, Dr. Alan Chan, explains: "A gentleman's word is his bound. He ought to keep his head a split second ahead of his mouth".

As a non-invited commentator, I would say that there are two sorts of "unsaid". One is where subtlety prevails over forthrightness, the implicit over the explicit, the grey over the black & white. The other is just a wise cautious approach; words fly but their consequences stay with us. Speech is silver, silence is golden. Source author: Petru Dumitriu <PetruD@diplomacy.edu>