E. J. Pratt was a prominent Canadian poet in the early 20th century. Some of his poems are online at The University of Toronto Library.

One of these poems is Silences which starts out with these thought-provoking lines:

There is no silence upon the earth or under the earth like the silence
under the sea;
No cries announcing birth,
No sounds declaring death.

It’s just something that never occurred to me that in the depths of the sea life and death occur in absolute silence, silence that makes you feel as you read the poem that it is just routine, and very frightening to the human mind.

Then the poem moves on to higher forms of life and speculates that two human enemies might begin a friendship after giving passionate voice to their hostilities, and offers this sentiment:

for who would not prefer to be lustily damned than to be half-heartedly blessed?

I stopped to examine that statement since there are people who must live in silence, who cannot hear and/or speak. The poem continues:

No one need fear oaths that are properly enunciated, for they
belong to the inheritance of just men made perfect, and, for all we
know, of such may be the Kingdom of Heaven.
But let silent hate be put away for it feeds upon the heart of the hater.

Words do hurt, though. They can cause some pretty terrible wounds. Words also heal. That’s true, too, but I think I’ll remember this poem the next time I feel like letting loose with a ‘passionate’ oath and keep my mouth shut anyway.