Perhaps she should have been totally silent and held her breath, hoping that the fever would run blindly throughout the house unable to find her and then crash out a window to dissipate in the snow. But she was not sure that her indiscretion would not, in the end, serve her well, for she remembered what her father had said about those who bide too much of their time and keep too much counsel. He had told her,” God is not fooled by silence.” He had told her always to have courage, and sometimes to step into the breach.

"Winter's Tale" de Mark Helprin