The world is for thousands a freak show; the images flicker past and vanish.

Gossip isn’t scandal and it’s not merely malicious. It’s chatter about the human race by lovers of the same.

There are many civil questions that arise between individuals in which it is not so important the controversy be settled one way or another as that it be settled.

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.

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

There is a demon who puts wings on certain tales and launches them like eagles out into space.

Humiliation is the beginning of sanctification.

Show me someone who never gossips, and I’ll show you someone who isn’t interested in people.

Gossip is the opiate of the oppressed.

The one thing the world will never have enough of is the outrageous.

The more sifted, the finer the flour; the more often repeated, the rougher the gossip.

Reputation, like beavers and cloaks, shall last some people twice the time of others.

The older one grows, the more one likes indecency.