Often it's not what you say that matters. It's what you barely manage stop yourself from saying.

In communication, there are sins—of comission (you say the wrong thing) and of omission (you fail to say the thing that needed to be said).

The same is less often said of heroism in communication.

But it's true:

Sometimes you say the right thing at the right moment in the right way, and you change the world.

And other times, you—well, for instance, yesterday afternoon I needed both my hands to hold my tongue, which was trying to tell Scout that her schooyard nemesis (another seven-year-old girl, after all) is "an asshole."

In life and in communication, it's possible to do good by not doing bad.