"You Catch More Flies with Honey... THE PROVERBS PROJECT

While in the cereal aisle at my local grocery store, I overheard a grandmother telling her grandson, "It's not what you say, but how you say it!" Immediately I was standing in my childhood home's kitchen next to my 8-year-old sister with tears running down her face as my mom, slightly bent over, admonished me with that exact phrase. 

Another favorite saying my mother used to encourage my brothers and sisters to have a semblance of decency was: "You catch more flies with honey than with vinegar." This phrase first appeared in G. Torriano's "Common Place of Italian Proverbs." However, it first appeared in the United States in Benjamin Franklin's "Poor Richard's Almanac" in 1744.

Another such proverb was written many years before Ben Franklin's account and was a possible source for both previous quotes.

The wise of heart is called discerning, and sweetness of speech increases persuasiveness. Proverbs 16:21 ESV