A friend recently shared an image of Lincoln with the quote, "Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than speak and remove all doubt."
Correcting that idea, I replied with the following: "Speak! Reveal your foolishness, and open yourself so that others may enlighten you and you can learn. Fear the false mantle of silence-as-wisdom; better to briefly be the vocal fool than forever the silent fool."
The experience led me to thinking that it might be fun, cathartic, andor a good mental exercise/reminder to translate our culture's more irrational memes into a more presentable package.
Post your own examples if you like, and if I think of/see more I'll post here.
If other societal memes vanish/degrade/change with time, why not quotes? Why do they carry an intellectual value despite the fact they're (big number here) years old?
http://slatestarcodex.com/2013/06/09/all-debates-are-bravery-debates/ -> Also relevant. Some people might agree with one extreme and disagree with the other. Lincoln's advice is probably not going to be useful to someone who is not sure about if the thing they say is foolish. Your own idea is a slippery slope - a fool will quite rightly be told eventually to shut the hell up. Nothing to revel in, and probably best not to reveal, unless you live in HPMORverse or some 5th-level thinking universe (or whatever the right description for 'what's my opponent thinks I think he thinks.." is)
"might rightly be told eventually to shut the hell up"
I don't think that disproves my version--being told to shut up still serves more than silence, as they learn that the timing of their questions and statements makes a difference. Or at least, ideally they still learn from the experience.
They shouldn't fear looking foolish, but learn and apply sense for when to speak.