Silence Tradition and Customs Quotes

Moore tells us in the notes attached to the end of "Silence" that this quote comes from Edmund Burke, an 18th-century British writer, philosopher, and politician. But the quote doesn't come from him directly; Moore found it in a biography, Burke's Life, by James Prior. This is similar to how we come across the quote from the speaker's father; we get it secondhand. Also, check out how a lot of the poem's references direct us to well-respected, important, and very intellectual men. Longfellow, Emerson and Burke were all stately male figures who weren't shy about expressing their opinions and were greatly admired for their rhetorical skills – sounds like how the speaker's father might imagine himself, doesn't it?