Quotations about Gossip and Secrets
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
Gossip is news that somebody you don't like found out before you did. ~J. W. Cunningham (1881–1971), Corn on the Cob, 1952 [This line may have been first published as early as the 1930s, in a Toledo, Ohio newspaper.
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