For clarity, consider each message in light of the question, “Is what I am about to say of benefit to the listener?” Even difficult statements are beneficial if they truly help the receiver, and are delivered with proper tone and context.
Dietrick Bonhoeffer (1906-1945) was a German pastor, theologian and anti-Nazi dissident. He was opposed to Hitler’s genocide of the Jews, and ran “underground seminaries” during the war. In 1943 he was imprisoned by the Gestapo. Bonhoeffer was executed in the spring of 1945.