"Quae Scis, Non Dicas"

     I try to read a little Latin every day. I try to include a little prose and a little poetry. At the moment, my prose comes from Quintilian, while my Latin consists of couplets from the collection Brevissima collected and edited by Laura Gibbs. Today's Latin couplet is a piece from Anton Moker's (1540-1605) Decalogus Metricus to which Laura Gibbs attached the title "Quae Scis, Non Dicas" -

Quae scis, non semper dicas; dixisse nocebit:

Scire licet, sed non dicere scita licet.

Roughly:

You should not always say what you know; it will harm you to have spoken:

It is permitted to know some things, but it is not permitted to say what you know. 

I really liked this one. The scansion is simple, the Latin is very clear and direct, and it is the type of gnomic wisdom that sounds good both in Latin and in translation.