Proverbs 18:13
Proverbs 18:1313He who answers a matter before he hears it— this is folly and disgrace to him.
is a verse JW publications quote freely on the value of careful listening — a general piece of wisdom for elders, parents, and study leaders. It is rarely applied reflexively to the way Watchtower vocabulary ("apostate," "worldly," "spiritually weak") cuts off conversation before the question has been heard.
Solomon names a specific failure mode — replying before hearing — and calls it folly and humiliation. The proverb is the wisdom-literature counterpart to Peter's command in to give an answer "with gentleness and respect," and to Paul's instruction in that speech be "gracious, seasoned with salt." When loaded vocabulary arrives in conversation before the substance of a question has been understood — when "you sound like an apostate" answers what someone is asking before they have finished asking it — the move is exactly what names. The verse is a quiet corrective to the thought-terminating cliché whether the cliché comes from inside any tradition or from outside it.