The ancient collection places the ears-and-mouth reply in Zeno’s biography. The version shown here says to listen more and speak less; it does not use the popular arithmetic of “twice as much.”
“We have two ears and one mouth so that we can listen twice as much as we speak” — Zeno of Citium
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Provenance
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Documented trail
Diogenes Laërtius, Lives of the Eminent Philosophers 7.23, English text at Wikisource.
Evidence
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The reason why we have two ears and only one mouth is that we may listen the more and talk the less.
A short excerpt from the cited source; it may differ from the popular wording above.
Read the source ↗ — The ancient collection places the ears-and-mouth reply in Zeno’s biography. The version shown here says to listen more and speak less; it does not use the popular arithmetic of “twice as much.”
The underlying anecdote is ancient, but the exact popular English version is not tied to a dated translation here.
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Popular creditDiogenes Attribution
The ancient collection places the ears-and-mouth reply in Zeno’s biography. The version shown here says to listen more and speak less; it does not use the popular arithmetic of “twice as much.” Source ↗
✓The ancient collection places the ears-and-mouth reply in Zeno’s biography. The version shown here says to listen more and speak less; it does not use the popular arithmetic of “twice as much.” Evidence ↗
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Zeno of Citium is identified in the cited material as the ancient stoic philosopher. This page distinguishes the documented source trail from a claim of verbatim personal testimony.
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The primary source (Chicago)
Diogenes Laërtius, Lives of the Eminent Philosophers 7.23, English text at Wikisource.
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Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘We have two ears and one mouth so that we can listen twice as much as we speak’?” Last verified 9 Nov 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/we-have-two-ears-and-one-mouth-so-that-we-can-listen-twice/