A rumor is a social cancer: it is difficult to contain and it rots the brains of the masses. However, the real danger is that so many people find rumors enjoyable. That part causes the infection. And in such cases when a rumor is only partially made of truth, it is difficult to pinpoint exactly where the information may have gone wrong. It is passed on and on until some brave soul questions its validity; that brave soul refuses to bite the apple and let the apple eat him. Forced to start from scratch for the sake of purity and truth, that brave soul, figuratively speaking, fully amputates the information in order to protect his personal judgment. In other words, his ignorance is to be valued more than the lie believed to be true.

Gossip is the devil's radio.

When gossip grows old it becomes myth.

Malicious gossip takes the place of creation in non-creative lives.

In the government of a semi-barbarous race ... a little despotism is absolutely necessary.

For what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbors, and laugh at them in our turn?

Whoever gossips to you will gossip of you.

Leave the bad tale where you found it.

Never believe anything bad about anybody unless you positively know it to be true; never tell even that unless you feel that it is absolutely necessary-and that God is listening while you tell it.

Are you a politician asking what your country can do for you, or a zealous one asking what you can do for your country? If you are the first, then you are a parasite; if the second, then you are an oasis in the desert.

Intelligence dies for want of nourishment under a machinery of government which leaves nothing to the initiative of the citizen.

Hast thou heard a word against thy neighbor? Let it die within thee, trusting that it will not burst thee.

I don't call it gossip, I call it 'emotional speculation'.

Count not him among your friends who will retail your privacies to the world.

Just as the larger fish in the sea swallow the smaller, so also is it with men. If not for the fear of government, the stronger would swallow the weaker.

If one leads them with administrative measures and uses punishments to make them conform, the people will be evasive, but if one leads them with virtue, they will come up to expectations.

The system doesn't have to be pure, but it does have to work.

You give bureaucrats power over others, and when the others are poor and helpless, nothing matches government. More than any single exploitive tyrannical force, the possibility of what government can do is absolutely terrifying.

I am more interested in the purpose of government than its mechanics-though the means should at least be good enough to lead to the ends desired.

Gossip is spreading other people's misery.