Why do we say "Least said, soonest mended"?

Meaning:

Bad situations will be forgotten more quickly if not dwelled on; generally used to discourage a person from complaining, apologizing, arguing, or making excuses.

Background:

According to America's Popular Proverbs and Sayings by Gregory Titelman, this expression is first recorded in Remains of Early Poetry (c.1460). We were unable to find reference to this title and date but did find Remains of the Early Popular Poetry of England, collected and edited by William Carew Hazlitt (1864). If this is the earliest known reference in English then earlier uses can be found in Spanish.

For example, Cervantes expresses the sentiment in Don Quixote (1606).

A few years later Spanish philosopher Baltasar Gracian put an interesting spin on it that many of us could take heed from: " Little said is soon amended. There is always time to add a work, never to withdraw one."

Charles Dickens uses the expression in David Copperfield (1849-50):

First, she lost in the mining way, and then she lost in the diving way - fishing up treasure, or some such Tom Tiddler nonsense,' explained my aunt, rubbing her nose; 'and then she lost in the mining way again, and, last of all, to set the thing entirely to rights, she lost in the banking way. I don't know what the Bank shares were worth for a little while,' said my aunt; 'cent per cent was the lowest of it, I believe; but the Bank was at the other end of the world, and tumbled into space, for what I know; anyhow, it fell to pieces, and never will and never can pay sixpence; and Betsey's sixpences were all there, and there's an end of them. Least said, soonest mended!'

Variations include least said, sooner mended; the least said, the easier mended; and the less said, the sooner mended.

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