ESCAPE VELOCITY

1 - Ever brilliant.

Yes. That sounds about right.

2 - I once worked on a project where the client had a dyed-in-the-wool project manager doing their end of the project. She ended every question or sentence with the phrase "silence means agreement". Kind of the same idea...

3 - A corruption of this:

Sir Thomas More: Not so. Not so, Master Secretary. The maxim is "Qui tacet consentiret": the maxim of the law is "Silence gives consent". If therefore you wish to construe what my silence betokened, you must construe that I consented, not that I denied.

Cromwell: Is that in fact what the world construes from it? Do you pretend that is what you wish the world to construe from it?

Sir Thomas More: The world must construe according to its wits; this court must construe according to the law.