Idle Talk Quotes

Gossip is never fatal until it is denied. Gossip goes on about every human being alive and about all the dead that are alive enough to be remembered, and yet almost never does any harm until some defender makes a controversy. Gossip's a nasty thing, but it's sickly, and if people of good intentions will let it entirely alone, it will die, ninety-nine times out of a hundred.

The widespread interest in gossip is inspired, not by a love of knowledge but by malice: no one gossips about other people's secret virtues, but only about their secret vices. Accordingly most gossip is untrue, but care is taken not to verify it. Our neighbour's sins, like the consolations of religion, are so agreeable that we do not stop to scrutinise the evidence closely.

you had nothing to say about it and yet made the nothing up into words.

Like a fine flower, beautiful to look at but without scent, fine words are fruitless in a man who does not act in accordance with them.

Like a beautiful flower that is colorful but has no fragrance, even well spoken words bear no fruit in one who does not put them into practice.

gossip ... is only fiction produced by non-professionals.

Rumors are the sauce of a dry life.

Talk is cheap, let's go play.

Gossip is news running ahead of itself in a red satin dress.

Some people rely on rumors and gossip because they are devoid of any original thought.

Were there no hearers, there would be no backbiters.

Don't indulge in gossip. ... People who throw mudballs always manage to end up getting a little on themselves.

I am not a romantic. I am a domestic animal. I do not sigh and yearn for extravagant displays of passion, for the grand affair, the world well lost for love. I know all that, and know that it leaves you lonely. No, what I crave is the simplicity of routine. An evening walk, arm in arm, in fine weather. A game of cards. Time for idle talk. Preparing a meal together.

Gossip is always a personal confession either of malice or imbecility.

Gossip bespeaks either a vacant mind or one that entertains jealousy or envy.

Talkers are no good doers.

Some people are like wheelbarrows; useful only when pushed, and very easily upset. The time to stop talking is when the other person nods his head affirmatively but says nothing.

Jesse ain't running nothin' but his mouth.

The slothful are always ready to engage in idle talk of what will be done tomorrow, and every day after.

No gossip ever dies away entirely, if many people voice it: it, too, is a kind of divinity.

Gossip is conversation about people.

A gentleman that loves to hear himself talk, will speak more in a minute than he will stand to in a month.

In every province, the chief occupations, in order of importance, are lovemaking, malicious gossip, and talking nonsense.

If you've got time to waste, you might as well waste it listening to people.

gossip is just the small change of conversation.