https://www.sfkoreanews.com/post/%EC%B9%A8%EB%AC%B5%EC%9D%80-%EA%B8%88%EC%9D%B8%EA%B0%80
어렸을 때 '웅변은 은이요, 침묵은 금'이라고 배웠다. 과연 그 교훈은 맞는 말일까.
찾아보니 토마스 칼라일(Thomas Caryle 1795-1881)이라는 영국의 비평가가 'Speech is Silver, Silence is Gold'라고 했다고 한다.
수필 by 주대식
Bus 44
Who is a hero according to Thomas Carlyle?
A hero is a man who willingly devotes his life to the divine and inner truth and shares his vision with the rest of the world. For Carlyle, this is the definition of a true man: one who is a deep and spiritual being, living his life by divine truths. May 18, 2004
Masculinity in Thomas Carlyle's "On Heroes, Hero-Worship and the
Carlyle values this quality of appropriate silence, not just when talking about one's sincerity but in all things. He makes a clear distinction between a man who goes out and tries to prove his strength by doing brash things and a man who has inner strength and wisdom. For him, the latter is much manlier; rather than brawn and brute force, Carlyle values a much more serene strength, a spiritual strength.
A fundamental mistake to call vehemence and rigidity strength! A man is not strong who takes convulsion-fits; though six men cannot hold him then. He that can walk under the heaviest weight without staggering, he is the strong man . . . A man who cannot hold his peace, till the time come for speaking and acting, is no right man. [Carlyle, p. 185]
Speaking without anything to say reveals the opposite of manhood, for according to Carlyle, a man who can know where, when, and what to say is a true man.
Courage and the elimination of fear play a role in manhood for Carlyle, even if the Hero needs not to prove his courage in combat. "Valour is still value. The first duty for a man is still that of subduing Fear. We must get rid of Fear; we cannot act at all till then" (Carlyle, p. 32). The difference between Carlyle's theory of what makes a man a great man and the standard definition is that the man only needs to express his thoughts in a good way; he does not have to act, to demonstrate his lack of fear.