So live that you wouldn't be ashamed to sell the family parrot to the town gossip.

So live that you wouldn't be ashamed to sell the family parrot to the town gossip.

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

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

Whoever keeps an open ear
For tattlers will be sure to hear
The trumpet of contention.

Whoever keeps an open ear
For tattlers will be sure to hear
The trumpet of contention.

He's gone, and who knows how may he report
Thy words by adding fuel to the flame?

He's gone, and who knows how may he report
Thy words by adding fuel to the flame?

There is so much good in the worst of us, and so much bad in the best of us, that read more

There is so much good in the worst of us, and so much bad in the best of us, that it ill behaves any of us to find fault with the rest of us.

Gossip is what no one claims to like -- but everyone enjoys.

Gossip is what no one claims to like -- but everyone enjoys.

Gossip is a sort of smoke that comes from the dirty tobacco-pipes
of those who diffuse it; it proves read more

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 only one thing in the world worse than being talked
about, and that is not being talked read more

There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked
about, and that is not being talked about.

It is perfectly monstrous the way people go about nowadays saying things against one, behind one's back, that are absolutely read more

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