Especially relevant in these times:

“Too much is learned that adds nothing to life. The flow of troubled water washes in a mountain of debris. The unlearned feel it necessary to empty their garbage into the ears of other people without considering whether anyone wants to hear it. U yo tsv hi, the Cherokee call it––not music, not poetry, not gracious words––but pure trash. The container may be new and shiny and touched by bits of colorful paint, but inside is the same old decaying ga da ha (spoken with disgust) and the word is filth.

Little things reveal much about a person but none more than what he talks about, what he laughs at, what he finds amusing, or even helpful. No matter how beautiful or handsome, the tongue tells all.”

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~ Joyce Sequichie Hifler, A Cherokee Feast of Days (Council Oak Books 1992), p. 168.