Ted Turner removes all doubt...

[Jan Ivarsson TransEdit]

Barry Popik quotes:
>Daniel Seaman, a spokesman for the Israeli government, said:
>"My only advice to Ted Turner is if people assume you are stupid, it is just
>best to keep your mouth shut rather than open your mouth and confirm everyone
>in that view." (...)
>  ASK YAHOO! discussed this on January 15, 2001
> (http://www.ask.yahoo.com/20010115.html).
>Variously given as "It is better to stay silent and have
>people think you a fool, than to open your mouth and remove all doubt," it's
>been attributed to Abraham Lincoln, George Eliot, Mark Twain, Albert
>Einstein, Groucho Marx, and SIlvan Engel.
 >  A check of the Making of America database didn't turn up anything (...)

A look in the Bible (Proverbs 17, 28) gives you the probable origin of all the variations:
"Even a fool, when he holdeth his peace, is counted wise: and he that shutteth his lips is esteemed a man of understanding."

Jan Ivarsson
jan.ivarsson at transedit.st