The flying rumours gather'd as the roll'd,
Scarce any tale was sooner heard than told;
And all read more

The flying rumours gather'd as the roll'd,
Scarce any tale was sooner heard than told;
And all who told it added something new.
And all who heard it made enlargements too.

Straightway throughout the Libyan cities flies rumor;--the report
of evil things than which nothing is swifter; it flourishes by read more

Straightway throughout the Libyan cities flies rumor;--the report
of evil things than which nothing is swifter; it flourishes by
its very activity and gains new strength by its movements; small
at first through fear, it soon raises itself aloft and sweeps
onward along the earth. Yet its head reaches the clouds. . . . A
huge and horrid monster covered with many feathers: and for
every plume a sharp eye, for every pinion a biting tongue.
Everywhere its voices sound, to everything its ears are open.
[Lat., Extemplo Libyae magnas it Fama per urbes:
Fama malum quo non velocius ullum;
Mobilitate viget, viresque acquirit eundo;
Parva metu primo; mox sese attollit in auras,
Ingrediturque solo, et caput inter nubilia condit.
. . . .
Monstrum, horrendum ingens; cui quot sunt corpore plumae
Tot vigiles oculi subter, mirabile dictu,
Tot linquae, totidem ora sonant, tot subrigit aures.]

There is nothing which cannot be perverted by being told badly.

There is nothing which cannot be perverted by being told badly.

Every rumor is believed against the unfortunate.
[Lat., Ad calamitatem quilibet rumor valet.]

Every rumor is believed against the unfortunate.
[Lat., Ad calamitatem quilibet rumor valet.]

Rumor doth double, like the voice and echo,
The numbers of the feared.

Rumor doth double, like the voice and echo,
The numbers of the feared.

Nature abhors a vacuum but why do most people hasten to fill in the blanks with garbage?

Nature abhors a vacuum but why do most people hasten to fill in the blanks with garbage?

I cannot tell how the truth may be;
I say the tale as 'twas said to me.

I cannot tell how the truth may be;
I say the tale as 'twas said to me.

Some report elsewhere whatever is told them; the measure of
fiction always increases, and each fresh narrator adds something read more

Some report elsewhere whatever is told them; the measure of
fiction always increases, and each fresh narrator adds something
to what he has heard.
[Lat., Hi narrata ferunt alio; mensuraque ficti
Crescit et auditus aliquid novus adjicit auctor.]

I will be gone,
That pitiful rumor may report my flight
To consolate thine ear.

I will be gone,
That pitiful rumor may report my flight
To consolate thine ear.