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Quotations about
Gossip and Secrets
People are always most interested in what concerns them least. This is why a horse race draws a bigger crowd than a prayer-meeting... What we want is gossip — not philosophy. ~William Ellis, 1904
Small tongues gossip and large ears magnify. ~James Lendall Basford (1845–1915), Seven Seventy Seven Sensations, 1897
Few tales speed that carry a load of honesty. ~Henry Stanley Haskins, "Truth," Meditations in Wall Street, 1940
[T]hey liked their gossip strong and highly flavored, like their tea. ~Louisa May Alcott, "Governess," Work: A Story of Experience, 1873
Is there something so delicious in disasters and pain? Bad news is always exaggerated, and we may challenge Providence to send a fact so tragical that we cannot contrive to make it a little worse in our gossip...
We are unskilful definers. From want of skill to convey quality, we hope to move admiration by quantity. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson, "The Superlative," 1882
Common report is an ass whose long ears only catch its own braying. ~W. Somerset Maugham, Lady Frederick, 1907
Count him not among your friends who will retail your privacies to the world. ~Publilius Syrus, 1st century BCE, from the Latin by D. Lyman, 1856
There were times when Anne's information was more interesting than reliable. ~Mary Hunter Austin, The Ford, 1917
Evil gossip... generates mistaken opinions, wrong attitudes; it dictates misguided action. Sometimes the evil spreads by contact, like a contagious disease. The hearer becomes, in turn, the teller, who in turn, becomes another teller; until in the end a whole group of people is infected. Unfortunately, we have not yet advanced to the point where we can tack a yellow card on a door: "Beware! This House is Infected by Gossip." ~H. A. Overstreet, About Ourselves: Psychology for Normal People, 1927
Some men consider their wives nobody; when a secret is confided to them, with the injunction to "tell nobody," of course they tell their wives only. ~James Lendall Basford (1845–1915), Sparks from the Philosopher's Stone, 1882
A secret's worth depends on the people from whom it must be kept. ~Carlos Ruiz Zafón, The Shadow of the Wind, 2001, translated from Spanish by Lucia Graves, 2004
The widespread interest in gossip is inspired, not by a love of knowledge but by malice: no one gossips about other people's secret virtues, but only about their secret vices. ~Bertrand Russell, On Education, 1926
If you reveal your secrets to the wind you should not blame the wind for revealing them to the trees. ~Kahlil Gibran (1883–1931)
Witness deponeth not. ~Frederick William Robinson, Under the Spell, 1870
A Slander counts by Threes its victims, who
Are Speaker, Spoken Of, and Spoken To.
~Arthur Guiterman, "Of Quarrels," A Poet's Proverbs, 1924
When you are in trouble, people who call to sympathize are really looking for the particulars. ~E. W. Howe
There are two kinds of people who blow through life like a breeze,
And one kind is gossipers, and the other kind is gossipees...
~Ogden Nash (1902–1971), "I Have It on Good Authority"
Curiosity had twins — one was Invention and the other was Stick Yer Nose Into Things. ~Josh Billings
Scandal travels fast, but a good deed goes without saying. ~"Poor Richard Junior's Philosophy," The Saturday Evening Post, 1908, George Horace Lorimer, editor
A cruel story runs on wheels, and every hand oils the wheels as they run. ~Ouida (Maria Louise de la Ramé, 1839–1908), Moths, 1880
All in a moment it seemed as if every one in society were murmuring, hinting, smiling, with that damnable smile with which the world always greets the approach of a foul idea.... so they muttered; and the fans and the cigarettes made little breaks and waves in the air, as much as to say it was always so... Then society laughed; its inane cruel chirping laughter, when it smells a sin. ~Ouida (Maria Louise de la Ramé, 1839–1908), Moths, 1880
What Greedy Ears receive, Loose Tongues betray;
But no one can Repeat what you Don't Say.
~Arthur Guiterman, "Of Secrets," A Poet's Proverbs, 1924
Nothing travels faster than the speed of light with the possible exception of bad news, which obeys its own special laws. ~Douglas Adams
You should tell no one what you wish no one to know. ~Publilius Syrus, 1st century BCE, from the Latin by D. Lyman, 1856
RUMOR A monster with more tales than an octopus. ~Charles Wayland Towne, The Foolish Dictionary, Executed by Gideon Wurdz, Master of Pholly, Doctor of Loquacious Lunacy, etc., 1904
Turn a deaf ear to calumnious reports. ~Publilius Syrus, 1st century BCE, from the Latin by D. Lyman, 1856
Slander is more injurious than open violence. ~Publilius Syrus, 1st century BCE, from the Latin by D. Lyman, 1856
Slander is a greater outrage than personal violence. ~Publilius Syrus, 1st century BCE, from the Latin by D. Lyman, 1856
Don't let your hatred gossip. ~Terri Guillemets
Nature keeps secrets, man cannot. ~James Lendall Basford (1845–1915), Seven Seventy Seven Sensations, 1897
Measles are said to be catching, but I always thought GOSSIP was a little more so. ~Josh Billings, revised by H. Montague
There are secrets I would not reveal under torture. I mean, there would have to be a silence at a cocktail party, or you would have to be sitting next to me in tourist class. ~Robert Brault, rbrault.blogspot.com, 2018
SECRETS are a burden. That's the reason we are so anxious to have somebody to help us carry them. ~Josh Billings, revised by H. Montague
I look at it this way. I'm not an eavesdropper; I have an attention surplus disorder. ~Robert Brault, rbrault.blogspot.com
The first gossip occurred between Eve and the Devil. ~James Lendall Basford (1845–1915), Seven Seventy Seven Sensations, 1897
A SECRET is like an aching tooth — keeps you uneasy till it's out. ~Josh Billings, revised by H. Montague
Old Lady Gossip is a mean old gal;
All kinds of trouble she causes!
You'll find her in homes; wherever she roams,
In her work she never pauses.
Nothing can give her more joy and more glee,
Than to start an untrue story
That will smirch the name of a gent or dame,
For it covers her with glory.
~Gertrude Tooley Buckingham, "Old Lady Gossip" (1940s)
I resolve to speak ill of no man whatever, not even in a matter of truth; but rather by some means excuse the faults I hear charged upon others, and upon proper occasions speak all the good I know of every body. ~Benjamin Franklin, 1726
Some one says it is a lie. Well, I am reminded by that of the remark of the witty Irishman who said, "There are a terrible lot of lies going about the world, and the worst of it is that half of them are true." ~Winston Churchill, 1906
Harrowed by her curiosity, Mrs. Kip hung with her rocking-chair poised on its tiptoes... ~Rupert Hughes, The Thirteenth Commandment, 1916
Three may keep a Secret, if two of them are dead. ~Benjamin Franklin, 1735
"Three may keep a secret if two of them are dead," said Poor Richard, but
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