Discretion the Better Part of Valor

How vain the opinion is of some certaine people of the East Indies, who think that apes and baboons, which are with them in great numbers, are imbued with understanding, and that they can speake but will not, for fear they should be imployed and sette to work.

                                                - Antoine le Grand, Cartesian philosopher and priest (ca. 1675;                                                                 cited by David Graeber, "Bullshit Jobs")

"A simple 'oooh ooooh ooooh' would have been enough, 

but you had to open your big mouth!"