Quotations on Gossip

And all who told it added something new,
And all who heard it made enlargements too.

~ Alexander Pope

Even doubtful accusations leave a stain behind them.

~ Thomas Fuller

What some invent, the rest enlarge.

~ Jonathan Swift

The only time people dislike gossip is when you gossip about them.

~ Will Rogers

Of every ten persons who talk about you, nine will say something bad, and the tenth will say something good in a bad way.

~ Antoine Rivarol

What people say behind your back is your standing in the community.

~ Edgar Watson Howe

There isn't much to be seen in a little town, but what you hear makes up for it.

~ Frank McKinney "Kin" Hubbard

None are so fond of secrets as those who do not mean to keep them.

~ Charles Caleb Colton

Truth is not exciting enough to those who depend on the characters and lives of their neighbors for all their amusement.

~ George Bancroft

Gossip is the art of saying nothing in a way that leaves practically nothing unsaid.

~ Walter Winchell

A cruel story runs on wheels, and every hand oils the wheels as they run.

~ Ouida

To find out a girl's faults, praise her to her girlfriends.

~ Benjamin Franklin

It is perfectly monstrous the way people go about nowadays saying things against one, behind one's back, that are absolutely and entirely true.

~ Oscar Wilde

No one gossips about other people's secret virtues.

~ Bertrand Russell

- On Education, 1926

Men have always detested women's gossip because they suspect the truth: Their measurements are being taken and compared.

~ Erica Jong

When you are in trouble, people who call to sympathize are really looking for the particulars.

~ Edgar Watson Howe

- Country Town Sayings, 1911

If you haven't got anything nice to say about anybody, come sit next to me.

~ Alice Roosevelt Longworth