The Balance Of Words

Nemo etiam in dolo loquatur ad proximum suum. Laqueus est in labiis nostris, et saepe unusquisque sermonibus suis non explicatur, sed involvitur. Fovea alta est os malevoli: grande innocentiae praecipitium, sed majus malevolentiae. Innocens dum credit facile, cito labitur sed tamen iste lapsus resurgit: maledictus autem suis artibus praecipitatur, unde numquam exsiliat atque evadat. Ponderet ergo unusquisque sermones suos, non cum fraude et dolo: Statera fallax improbabilis apud Deum: non illam stateram dico, quae mercem appendit alienam, et in vilibus quidem rebus caro constat fallacia, sed statera verborum ipsa apud Deum est exsecrabilis, quae praetendit pondus gravitatis sobriae, et subnectit versutias fraudulentiae. Sanctus Ambrosius Mediolanensis, Epistola II, Ad Constantium Episcopum Source: Migne PL 16.882d-883a

Let no one speak deceitfully to his neighbour. There is a snare on our lips, and often is it that a man is not freed but trapped by his speech. 1 The mouth of the malevolent is a deep pit; great is the fall of innocence, but more is that of malevolence. 2 The innocent man, when he too easily trusts, quickly falls, but fallen he rises again; yet the man who speaks evil is thrown headlong by his art so that he can never recover and escape. Therefore let every man weigh his words, but not with deceit and guile, for: 'a false balance is abomination to the Lord.' 3 And I do not mean that balance which weighs the wares of others, though even in minor matters deceit often costs dear, but that balance of words which is detestable to the Lord, that which pretends to the weight of sober gravity but rests on deceitful artifices. Saint Ambrose, from Letter 2, To the Bishop Constantius 1 Prov 6.2 2 Prov 22.14 3 Prov 11.1