The absence of information, especially about a potentially problematic situation, suggests that nothing bad has happened.
This saying emerged in the 17th century when communication was slow and unreliable. People learned that urgent or bad news traveled fastest, while good news or routine situations often went unreported. The logic was that if you hadn't heard anything alarming, things were probably going well.
This phrase reflects a fascinating aspect of human communication - our tendency to report problems more urgently than successes. In our modern age of instant communication and 24-hour news cycles, this wisdom has become more complex, as the absence of news might simply mean information overload rather than actual peace or stability.
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