Gossip And Rumor Quotes & Sayings

Gossip is a sort of smoke that comes from the dirty tobacco-pipes of those who diffuse it: it proves nothing but the bad taste of the smoker. — George Eliot

RUMOUR:
Upon my tongues continual slanders ride,
The which in every language I pronounce,
Stuffing the ears of men with false reports. — William Shakespeare

A dread of white people now came to live permanently in my feelings and imagination. As the war drew to a close, racial conflict flared over the entire South, and though I did not witness any of it, I could not have been more thoroughly affected by it if I had participated directly in every clash. The war itself had been unreal to me, but I had grown able to respond emotionally to every hint, whisper, word, inflection, news, gossip, and rumor regarding conflicts between the races. Nothing challenged the totality of my personality so much as this pressure of hate and threat that stemmed from the invisible whites. I would stand for hours on the doorsteps of neighbors' houses listening to their talk, learning how a white woman had slapped a black woman, how a white man had killed a black man. It filled me with awe, wonder, and fear, and I asked ceaseless questions. One evening I heard a tale that rendered — Richard Wright

With respect to relationships within the church, the leader is to be above reproach. Detractors should not have a rung to stand on. If a charge is preferred against him, it fails because his life affords no grounds for reproach or indictment of wrongdoing. His adversary finds no opening for a smear campaign, rumor mongering, or gossip. — J. Oswald Sanders

I had rather take my chance that some traitors will escape detection than spread abroad a spirit of general suspicion and distrust, which accepts rumor and gossip in place of undismayed and unintimidated inquiry. — Learned Hand

Enter RUMOUR, painted full of tongues.
[Stage direction, Henry IV, Part 2, Induction] — William Shakespeare

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. — Criss Jami

Never judge someone's character based on the words of another. Instead, study the motives behind the words of the person casting the bad judgment. — Suzy Kassem

Gossip and rumor are evil; easy to lift up, heavy to carry, and hard to put down again. — Hesiod

Whoever gossips to you will gossip about you. — Philip Sidney

There is one more thing," said Mr. Peabody. "Now you must go and pick up all the feathers."
... "I don't think it's possible to pick up all the feathers," Tommy replied.
"It would be just as impossible to undo the damage that you have done by spreading the rumor that I am a thief," said Mr. Peabody. "Each feather represents a person in Happyville." ... "Next time, don't be so quick to judge a person. And remember the power of your words. — Madonna

Your tongue tends to say more about you when it blabs about other people. — Richelle E. Goodrich

If it were not for a goodly supply of rumors, half true and half false, what would the gossips do? — Thomas Chandler Haliburton

Poor Quinn."
I glanced at my husband, and found him shaking his head mournfully.
"Why poor Quinn?" Kat asked.
"Dan still has his crush on Nico, and Quinn isn't here to defend his bromance."
I snorted because this was true. Dan had a bit of a crush on Nico. But then, we all did.
As though reading my thoughts, Sandra mock-whispered, "We all have a crush on Nico. Even you, Greg."
He didn't deny it; instead, opting to say, "I'm going to start a rumor that Dan and Nico bought tickets to the Cubs opening game, they're going together, and are hoping to get on the kiss-cam."
I clicked my tongue in mild disapproval. "You are a gossip, Greg Archer."
"Yes. I am. Annoyingly, Alex is worthless at spreading rumors because he's smitten with Drew."
"And you're smitten with no one," I stated.
"Untrue. I'm smitten with you."
This earned him an appreciative grin; I lifted my chin. "Well played, husband. Well played. — Penny Reid

Trying to squash a rumor is like trying to unring a bell. — Shana Alexander

Rumor ... often is fathered and mothered by false reports. — Andre Norton

An idle tongue is the mother of all conflicts. — Dennis E. Adonis

Rumor travels faster, but it don't stay put as long as truth. — Will Rogers

And though there's a grain of truth in every rumor, I've found that the worst gossip usually starts with something harmless. — Kathleen O'Dell

There is a vital force in rumor. Though crushed to earth, to all intents and purposes buried, it can rise again without apparent effort. — Eleanor Robson Belmont

Gossip, then, is content, a message about people; rumor is a process. It takes a bit of gossip and reshapes it, modifies it in some way, and passes it along from individual to individual in different ways. — Jack Levin

People would say bad things about you, because it is the only way their insignificant self can feel better than you. — Dennis E. Adonis

Rumors chase the dead like flies, and we follow them with our prim noses. None of us are gossips, but we love listening to those who are. — Stephen L. Carter

The ball of rumor and criticism, once it starts rolling, is difficult to stop. — Anne Morrow Lindbergh

The world of rumor and gossip is like a privileged world with which a social scientist or an anthropologist can take the temperature of popular aspirations. — James C. Scott

It was uncertain. She was in her early forties. Breast cancer. No one could identify exactly how everyone had come to know this fact. Was it a fact? Some people called it rumor. But in fact there was no such thing as rumor. There was fact, and there was what did not come up in conversation. — Joshua Ferris

Rumor and gossip, like sound itself, appear to travel by wave-effect, sheer preposterosity being no barrier. — Shana Alexander

Rumor is untraceable, incalculable, and infectious. — Margot Asquith

Tale-bearers are as bad as the tale-makers. — Richard Brinsley Sheridan

he despised the alternative flow of information and insight, which was gossip and rumor. Like Winston Smith, he was first and foremost activated by a raging thirst to know: a thirst that could only be slaked by a personal quest for the least varnished version of the truth. — Christopher Hitchens

Most women indulge in idle gossip, which is the henchman of rumor and scandal. — Octave Feuillet

My position attracts a fair amount of rumors and gossip and misperceptions, but I'd rather not focus on that. — Queen Rania Of Jordan

The world of rumors and gossip is a world of wish fulfillment. And one of the things that gives volume and amplitude to a rumor is that it satisfies people's dreams and expectations about the world. — James C. Scott

People usually will remember people most, for the stupid things they did, than the impressionable ones. This somehow strangely, makes them feel better. — Anthony Liccione

Gossip? Me? How would I know about such things?" "Don't think of it as gossip. Think of it as rumor and innuendo. — Chet Williamson