“It is a troublesome and difficult task that philosophy has in hand when it undertakes to cure garrulousness. For the remedy, words of reason, requires listeners; but the garrulous listen to nobody, for they are always talking.”

Plutarch’s essay takes on an unusual philosophical problem: people who talk too much. In part an erudite and highly amusing history of the chatterbox as a social phenomenon, On Talkativeness also finds its way to the heart of much more serious issues—among them the nature of sociability and civic obligation. Careless talk, it turns out, really can cost lives, and quite possibly a great deal more.