What is meant by: "Those who talk do not know and those who know are not talking"?

Question

I have searched without success for a meaningful response to this question for many years. Perhaps those that have a meaningful answer "are not talking"?? :o]

I would like to start off the new year knowing the answers to all of my questions! (Any thumbs down will be considered to be an error in judgment)

Answer 1

I interpret it as people who do all the talking do not take the time to listen, so therefore they do not learn. Those who take the time to listen attain knowledge and already know that you must listen to learn.

Haha, I don't think my interpretation makes sense, but I tried.

Answer 2

This idea comes from the Tao Te Ching. Lao Tzu wrote this line meaning that the ineffable mystery of creation's metaphysical origins (and the depth of its significance) can never be sufficiently expressed in words. Therefore, talking about it is a waste of energy, and only someone who doesn't really have a true sense of its meaning would bother to try explaining it in words. On the other hand, the mystics who do really understand it know that they can't communicate it in words, so they just silently contemplate its meaning but make no attempt to tell others.

Answer 3

those who are talking just need to shut up and give the other people a chance , thank you for letting me have my say. It dosent happen that often xx

Answer 4

Those who talk have no clue on what really happened, and the ones that know would have to kill you if the told you

Answer 5

It means "don't take all quotes as fact" sometimes people just make up stuff and others repeat it like it was fact. I like to think that often those of us who talk might know a little something.

Answer 6

Those that talk, like to talk like they put on airs and know what they are talking about, when they haven't got a clue.
Those that know, are content in their knowledge and don't have to discuss or talk about it, as they already know. They just listen to the others make fools of themselves.

Answer 7

It probably has something to do with death,we talk about it,but from what experience?The dead know but can not say.What else could it be?Hope this gets you going for the new year>Happy New Year.

Answer 8

Look at the 'Area 51' controversy -- there's no limit to the conversation about what people 'think' is going on there, but the folk that actually know ain't sayin nuttin.

Answer 9

It means that there are always people out there who THINK they know something about everything. No matter what you say to them, they always have the answer even when they don't really know it. Their prides gets in the way of just saying simply "I don't know".

On the other hand, those who do no the answers, based on personal experience, just sit back and listen to the fools who think they do. Never saying a word. I know, because I have to do this with my father. He's one of those people who only quotes what he hears others say to make himself feel as if he's the know all end all. My mother never says a word, she simply proves him wrong by correcting his mistakes. I get a kick out of it.

Answer 10

I fail to see the mystery in what it means. It's an ultimate cynic's philosophy, as if those engaged in discussion know not whereof they speak, and can be discounted. That negates every productive effort. And that those keeping silent are the real movers and shakers, laughing at those seeking improvement. Sounds nihilistic, or like the words of a best-selling fiction among a smirking readership.