Can someone explain what this quote means?

It means get a job, ho!

If you had googled it you would have gotten the best answer last time someone asked the same question. The last time the quote was credited to B. Franklin and it certainly sounds more like Ben than John. It's like knocking on a wall. You get the louder sound when nothing is behind the wall and a dull thud when there is a stud. So the empty barrel makes the louder noise when you rap on it. It compares to someone that is empty headed and talks all the time about nothing and the full barrel. . .a smart person. . . has the good sense to be a good listener.

In elementary school, I always had good grades. Straight A's for everything. Yet nobody cared. All they payed attention to was an F student slacker. Everyone always said he would never make it to middle school. Everyone was so proud of him when he made a D average and went to sixth grade. He didn't even try to do it. All he did was do good on some big test and occasionally turn in his homework. Yet nobody congratulated me for getting straight A's. The quote means that our society praises mediocrity and ignores and excludes exceptionality.

Like listening to the ocean in a seashell, if you put your ear to an empty glass, you can hear more than you do with a full glass. I guess it insinuates that abundance isn't everything.

It means the knowledgeable and the wise are quiet while empty headed idiots can not shut up .

Well something that is empty usually gives an echo.

So metaphorically speaking, maybe silence is louder than words? Sometimes not saying something IS saying something.

it means a student can have more flexibility and flair than the teacher who has read and learned much but is now tied up with all the rules and regulations.

imo

Sometimes silence is more deafening than a blast or explosion