Silence

It is wonderfully economical, it can serve aspiration or fear,
It can take many hundreds of thousands and instantly cut them to size,
Make the tiniest thing astronomical. That’s the great multiplier called zero.
Sounds like nothing. But nothing in science can compare with the power of silence.


When it's hard to survive, what will keep you alive?
Bet you already know − keeping quiet.
All that you have to do, to get by and get through
Is to keep your head low, and stay quiet.
When the bravest men fall, and they go to the wall,
You'll be saving your skin keeping quiet.
And you don’t have to lie: you just have to comply.
In the end you’re quids in. You’ve kept quiet.


It’s effective and highly efficient, there is simply no cause to deny it.
Waste no effort in being a hero. There’s no need to inspire or insult.
You can take any one coefficient, nullify it or multiply it:
The appropriate function of zero, it delivers an instant result.


Someone's being a pain, and they come to complain?
Nod politely and quietly file it
In the nearest bin. And forget where it’s in.
You don’t have to say no. Just stay silent.
To advance and progress, you don’t have to say yes,
If you think at some point you’ll decry it.
If your conscience says no, no-one else needs to know,
Just make sure you stay low and keep quiet.


You can never be called out a criminal, if you’ve never committed a crime.
If there is nothing you’ve said to remind you, there is nothing you need to forget.
There's no risk, your expenditure’s minimal, your returns are a dollar a dime.
Just keep quiet, and if ever they find you, you’ll express your sincerest regret.


That will be the first time you have spoken.
With the power of that maiden speech,
You will sound so deeply heartbroken
They’ll be queuing to hear you preach.
They won’t notice that nothing you told them
Meant a thing. But your silence is golden.
You’re a zero, a hero of science:
That’s the great multiplier of silence.

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