Shifting my mindset from having opinions and beliefs, to having questions and curiosities has been one of the most important aspects to maintaining a healthy mind and heart.
Love this perspective. I think we need to choose wisely about where we put our attention and not feel pressured to speak our minds about everything — especially if we don’t have enough information. Assumptions are dangerous and stop us from actually being open to learn. Love this!
Thank you! Yes, silence can be wisdom. Before speaking, I try to ask myself: "Is it true? Is it kind? Is it necessary?" This simple filter has saved me from countless regrets.
Thank you for this post! It served as a GIGANTIC mental poke if you will, reminding me that indeed I need to be more intentional with my voice and thoughts. No I DON’T need to have an opinion on everything. Again, thanks for this!
I'm glad it resonated! Being selective with our opinions gives the ones we do share more weight. Like decluttering a home, it creates space for what truly matters.
In a world that demands constant commentary, silence has become a forgotten art. We are conditioned to believe that every ripple in the current of discourse requires our voice, that every unfolding event must pass through the sieve of our judgment. Yet, true wisdom is not measured by the frequency of our words, but by the depth of our understanding—and sometimes, understanding requires nothing more than stillness.
Not every question seeks an answer, not every argument warrants a response. The universe has existed long before our thoughts formed, and it will continue long after they fade. What then is the weight of an opinion, if it does not add to clarity, if it does not illuminate? The oak does not concern itself with the wind's every whisper, nor does the river pause to justify its course. So too, the mind is not meant to be a battlefield of endless disputes, but a sanctuary where only the most worthy of thoughts take root.
To refrain from forming an opinion on everything is not ignorance, but discipline. It is an act of defiance against the illusion that noise equates to wisdom. For in the quiet, in the deliberate act of withholding judgment, we do not diminish ourselves—we expand. We make room for truth to emerge, untainted by our biases, untouched by the need for validation.
Let the world speak, let events unfold, let the winds carry the voices of a thousand perspectives. We do not always need to add to the chorus. Sometimes, the most profound thing we can do is listen, and in that listening, understand.
I used to think “I don’t know” was a cop-out. Turns out it’s a spiritual practice. A little ego death wrapped in humility.
We’ve been conditioned to treat silence like incompetence, but sometimes the wisest thing you can say is absolutely nothing. Especially when the internet is screaming for hot takes like it’s the Hunger Games of outrage.
Let the crowd chase every headline like it’s salvation. I’ll be over here cultivating the radical act of not giving an opinion unless it’s rooted, ripened, and ready.
Choice overload is real. We have limited cognitive resources, so having more options to consider drains our mental energy more quickly, overwhelming us
I always looked down upon myself for not being enough well read with the current socio-economic and political discourse. I was afraid people or even my own close circle won’t accept me or look down at me for not having similar or any opinion on currents trends. There was a constant pressure within me; I thought in order to fit in, I need to be up to date with the current discourse. I kept myself isolated for a long time, thinking I should be well versed with the contemporary trends before stepping up in the social world. Little did I know, I chased perfectionism.
But there were times when I did restrain, and said “I do not have a stance yet,” and I remember feeling that pressure dropping significantly. I felt more open to others’ perspectives and one with myself. Now, I don’t feel any compulsion to hold opinions that don’t make sense to me, or don’t affect me in any way.
I love learning new things about myself and the world every single day. I can learn from a janitor, from a neighbour who has arrived from a distant country to settle in my beloved country.
I learnt the most from my beloved daughter.
Today, I also learn reflecting on new ideas via my grandchildren and their very refreshingly beautiful take on life. I’m open to being accountable for all my mistakes and for being better today as a person than I was yesterday.
Not in a self righteous judgy way, although I do follow my Catholic beliefs and enjoy the experience of Mass💙
Well put. It reminds me of Plato's words, "Wise men speak because they have something to say; fools speak because they have to say something."
When we speak from substance rather than ego, our words carry weight.
Shifting my mindset from having opinions and beliefs, to having questions and curiosities has been one of the most important aspects to maintaining a healthy mind and heart.
Yes! Questions open doors, opinions build walls. I've found the same freedom. When I'm curious instead of certain, I learn more and judge less.
Love this perspective. I think we need to choose wisely about where we put our attention and not feel pressured to speak our minds about everything — especially if we don’t have enough information. Assumptions are dangerous and stop us from actually being open to learn. Love this!
Thank you! Yes, silence can be wisdom. Before speaking, I try to ask myself: "Is it true? Is it kind? Is it necessary?" This simple filter has saved me from countless regrets.
Managing your silence while showing your engagement is important. That through questions and curiosity as someone said here. Thank you.
This is the topic on which only few people talk about. Btw it was great 🔥
Glad it resonated with you. Sometimes the most important truths are the least discussed.
I say sometimes you can just observe, rather than form an opinion.
LOVE IT! Thanks.
Thank you for this post! It served as a GIGANTIC mental poke if you will, reminding me that indeed I need to be more intentional with my voice and thoughts. No I DON’T need to have an opinion on everything. Again, thanks for this!
I'm glad it resonated! Being selective with our opinions gives the ones we do share more weight. Like decluttering a home, it creates space for what truly matters.
In a world that demands constant commentary, silence has become a forgotten art. We are conditioned to believe that every ripple in the current of discourse requires our voice, that every unfolding event must pass through the sieve of our judgment. Yet, true wisdom is not measured by the frequency of our words, but by the depth of our understanding—and sometimes, understanding requires nothing more than stillness.
Not every question seeks an answer, not every argument warrants a response. The universe has existed long before our thoughts formed, and it will continue long after they fade. What then is the weight of an opinion, if it does not add to clarity, if it does not illuminate? The oak does not concern itself with the wind's every whisper, nor does the river pause to justify its course. So too, the mind is not meant to be a battlefield of endless disputes, but a sanctuary where only the most worthy of thoughts take root.
To refrain from forming an opinion on everything is not ignorance, but discipline. It is an act of defiance against the illusion that noise equates to wisdom. For in the quiet, in the deliberate act of withholding judgment, we do not diminish ourselves—we expand. We make room for truth to emerge, untainted by our biases, untouched by the need for validation.
Let the world speak, let events unfold, let the winds carry the voices of a thousand perspectives. We do not always need to add to the chorus. Sometimes, the most profound thing we can do is listen, and in that listening, understand.
Excellently said.
👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼
I used to think “I don’t know” was a cop-out. Turns out it’s a spiritual practice. A little ego death wrapped in humility.
We’ve been conditioned to treat silence like incompetence, but sometimes the wisest thing you can say is absolutely nothing. Especially when the internet is screaming for hot takes like it’s the Hunger Games of outrage.
Let the crowd chase every headline like it’s salvation. I’ll be over here cultivating the radical act of not giving an opinion unless it’s rooted, ripened, and ready.
Yes!
I needed to hear this
Choice overload is real. We have limited cognitive resources, so having more options to consider drains our mental energy more quickly, overwhelming us
I always looked down upon myself for not being enough well read with the current socio-economic and political discourse. I was afraid people or even my own close circle won’t accept me or look down at me for not having similar or any opinion on currents trends. There was a constant pressure within me; I thought in order to fit in, I need to be up to date with the current discourse. I kept myself isolated for a long time, thinking I should be well versed with the contemporary trends before stepping up in the social world. Little did I know, I chased perfectionism.
But there were times when I did restrain, and said “I do not have a stance yet,” and I remember feeling that pressure dropping significantly. I felt more open to others’ perspectives and one with myself. Now, I don’t feel any compulsion to hold opinions that don’t make sense to me, or don’t affect me in any way.
Commentary: The Noise of Evolution and the Illusion of Silence
Human beings have always longed to escape excess — too many words, too many thoughts, too many emotions.
Today, Stoic philosophy has returned to the stage, preaching simplicity as wisdom, silence as strength, and fewer opinions as peace.
But nature is not this quiet.
Evolution does not advance through stillness — it thrives on noise.
Life progresses through excess, through trial and error, through endless variation.
The swarm of thoughts in the human mind is not a flaw — it is as natural and necessary as the buzzing of bees in a hive.
Stoicism seeks to protect the individual from the chaos of the world.
Evolution, however, protects not the individual, but the collective balance of the species.
The inner silence of one mind often contradicts the outer diversity that keeps a species alive.
If everyone cared only about what was within their control, humanity would never have discovered fire or looked toward the stars.
Curiosity, opinion, speculation — these are evolution’s small rebellions, and those rebellions drive progress.
The compulsion to form opinions is not a mental burden but a biological code of belonging.
Our ancestors spoke to avoid exile; to have an opinion was to exist.
Today, the same instinct plays out in social media debates and digital tribes.
The urge to comment is not weakness — it is evolution’s way of maintaining social cohesion.
We speak because silence, in evolutionary terms, is the signal of absence.
To be silent was once to disappear, and to disappear was to die.
So when modern wisdom says, “You don’t need to have an opinion about everything,” it sounds enlightened —
but from an evolutionary perspective, it asks the human being to defy its own design.
Yes, mental energy is finite, but we were not built to conserve it;
we were built to expend it, to learn through noise and motion.
Nature is not minimalist — it is extravagant.
Abundance is its method of discovery.
And yet, within this evolutionary noise, something unprecedented emerged: consciousness.
Consciousness is nature hearing itself for the first time.
Now the human does not merely think — it observes thinking itself.
This awareness transforms the meaning of silence.
Silence is not an escape from nature but a pause in which nature listens to its own echo.
True silence is not the absence of noise, but the moment you finally perceive it.
Evolution raised us through excess;
consciousness makes us aware of the weight of that excess.
Humanity now lives divided between nature’s instinct for abundance and awareness’s desire for stillness.
That conflict is not an error — it is our uniqueness.
For the human being is neither pure noise nor pure silence,
but the awareness born in the vibration between them.
Perhaps wisdom is not in being silent,
but in understanding why there is noise at all.
Evolution has always spoken —
but now, for the first time, it has begun to listen.
I love learning new things about myself and the world every single day. I can learn from a janitor, from a neighbour who has arrived from a distant country to settle in my beloved country.
I learnt the most from my beloved daughter.
Today, I also learn reflecting on new ideas via my grandchildren and their very refreshingly beautiful take on life. I’m open to being accountable for all my mistakes and for being better today as a person than I was yesterday.
Not in a self righteous judgy way, although I do follow my Catholic beliefs and enjoy the experience of Mass💙
Lovely ☺️