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Hail and welcome! This is Huginn's Heathen Hof, with your Daily Hávamál.

Original-
Hinn vari gestr
er til verðar kømr
þunnu hljóði þegir
eyrum hlýðir
en augum skoðar
svá nýsisk fróðra hverr fyrir

Translation-
The careful guest,
among strangers
keeps his eyes and ears open,
and his mouth closed.
Much wisdom can be learned
from quiet observation.
-Hávamál: Stanza 7

Continuing along this new theme of wisdom, we see a theme here which we should all recognize from stanza 1. Throughout the Hávamál we'll see this lesson repeated again and again: "BE AWARE OF YOUR SURROUNDINGS!".
Now that's a fair piece of advice all on it's own, but there's a more subtle lesson to be found in this verse. Just a few stanzas ago we were told that Hospitality requires a guest to be open and talkative. It was considered rude for a guest to be overly quiet. Yet here (just a handful of lines later) we see Odin advocating for being silent and wary rather than polite and talkative.
Now we know the god of Skalds doesn't simply ignore proper etiquette, he's far too eloquent for that.  So why would he contradict himself here?
Throughout this text, and indeed throughout most of ancient Norse and Germanic law, we see an underlying idea of dealing with every situation on it's own merit. The ideals presented in this book are not "laws" or "rules" in the sense that they are expected to be kept at all times and applied equally to every situation. The ancient worshipers of the Æsir and the Vanir knew better than that. There will ALWAYS be exceptions to every rule.
This isn't dogma to be strictly adhered to, it's advice that can help us lead better lives (if used properly). It's important to know when one should be polite and follow the rules, and when one should be ready to break them if needed. The god of war knows when to choose his battles, and so should we.