Last Updated: March 6, 2023 by Quote.cc Team
Gossip is human nature. We all, at some point, talk about others or be talked about. Not all gossip is evil. Some of them are mindless chitchats. But it can hurt someone else and also backfire. Many people gossip not because they want to hurt someone intentionally but to please the person they talk with. Some say gossip brings people closer. It forms a secret union and makes those who gossip feel like part of a group.
So how do we know what qualifies as gossip? A good rule of thumb is that if you wouldn’t feel comfortable saying it to someone, you shouldn’t say it about them.
Words are swords. They can hurt people. Once the rumor spreads, the damage is nearly impossible to be undone. That’s why spreading rumors is dangerous – you never know the intention of those who start them.
Is gossip excellent or evil? What to do if you are talked behind your back? Find your answer in these quotes about gossip and rumors. These gossip quotes will help you eliminate words from your life at work, at school, or among friends.
200 Gossip Quotes
Top 10 Gossip Quotes
“Your dignity can be mocked, abused, compromised, toyed with, lowered and even badmouthed, but it can never be taken from you. You have the power today to reset your boundaries, restore your image, start fresh with renewed values and rebuild what has happened to you in the past.” – Shannon L. Alder
“You will never be sorry . . . for standing by your principles, for stopping your ears to gossip.” – Byron Pulsifer
“You should never make fun of something that a person can’t change about themselves.” – Phil Lester
“Would your colleagues rather work with you if you are bright and cheerful, not prone to outbursts, or gossip or would they rather work with a person who has a sour disposition, is gloomy and unpredictable in mood? I think the answer is obvious.” – Byron Pulsifer
“Words, once spoken, can never be recalled.” – Wentworth Dillon
“Words spoken can never be recalled.” – Wentworth Dillon
“Words spoken are like eggs broken.” – Sheri Glewen
“Words have no wings but they can fly a thousand miles.” – Korean Proverb
“With bullying and all the stuff going on, words are very important. Words can be more hurtful than anything physically.” – Eric Church
“Whoever gossips to you will gossip about you.” – Spanish Proverb
What Is Gossip?
“Gossiping and lying go hand in hand.” – Proverb
“Gossip, it appears is a past time for many just like discussing the weather. It leads nowhere and neither talking about others or talking about the weather will change either.” – Catherine Pulsifer
“Gossip was usually a mindless distraction from a far too serious world.” – Dianne Sylvan
“Gossip never goes away, no matter where you are in life.” – Miranda Kenneally
“Gossip needs no carriage.” – Russian Proverb
“Gossip needn’t be false to be evil – there’s a lot of truth that shouldn’t be passed around.” – Frank A. Clark
“Gossip is when you hear something you like about someone you don’t.” – Earl Wilson
“Gossip is when you have a malice of intent or mindless, third-party conversation to someone about someone, something you haven’t said to that someone.” – Iyanla Vanzant
“Gossip is what no one claims to like, but everybody enjoys.” – Joseph Conrad
“Gossip is the opiate of the oppressed.” – Erica Jong
“Gossip is the art of saying nothing in a way that leaves practically nothing unsaid.” – Walter Winchell
“Gossip is the act of spreading that which is unconfirmed or the revealing of what was once confidential information. In either situation, gossip is harmful to the gossiper as well as the receipient. The best thing about gossip is when it doesn’t occur in any situation or in any environment.” – Byron R. Pulsifer
“Gossip is saying behind their back what you would not say to their face. Flattery is saying to their face what you would not say behind their back.”
“Gossip is poison.” – Gisele Bundchen
“Gossip is nature’s telephone.” – Sholom Aleichem
“Gossip is hardly uplifting.” – Ginger Rogers
“Gossip is called gossip because it’s not always the truth.” – Justin Timberlake
“Gossip is an imperative evolutionary characteristic that enables a community to stand strong and united.” – Abhijit Naskar
“Gossip is always a personal confession either of malice or imbecility.” – Josiah Gilbert Holland
“Gossip is also double-edged: as fun as it may be to tell gossip, by doing so we give people good reasons to do the same about us, which is not so amusing.” – Phill Haloway
“Gossip is a very dangerous tool. We should be more wary of the gossiper, and not the gossip they’re trying to relay to you.” – John Lydon
“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
“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
“Gossip about a person and his shadow will appear.” – Japanese Proverb
“Gossip . . . reflects the insecurity of those who initiate it.” – Oprah Winfrey
“What is told in the ear of a man is often heard 100 miles away.” – Chinese Proverb
“We cannot control the evil tongues of others; but a good life enables us to disregard them.” – Cato the Elder
“Watch out for the joy-stealers: gossip, criticism, complaining, faultfinding, and a negative, judgmental attitude.” – Joyce Meyer
“People love gossip. It’s the biggest thing that keeps the entertainment industry going.” – Ellen DeGeneres
“People gossip. People are insecure, so they talk about other people so that they won’t be talked about. They point out flaws in other people to make them feel good about themselves.” – Blake Lively
“One’s dignity may be assaulted, vandalized and cruelly mocked, but it can never be taken away unless it is surrendered.” – Michael J. Fox
“One of the most deadly diseases in the world today is gossip.” – David Kamara
“Often those that criticize others reveal what he himself lacks.” – Shannon L. Alder
“Nothing travels faster than light, with the possible exception of bad news, which follows its own rules.” – Douglas Adams
“It isn’t what they say about you, it’s what they whisper.” – Errol Flynn
“It is presumptuous to draw conclusions about a person from what one has heard.” – Jude Morgan
“It is just as cowardly to judge an absent person as it is wicked to strike a defenseless one. Only the ignorant and narrow-minded gossip, for they speak of persons instead of things.” – Lawrence G. Lovasik
“It is always assumed by the empty-headed, who chatter about themselves for want of something better, that people who do not discuss their affairs openly must have something to hide.” – Honor de Balzac
“It is a pleasure to me people – who do not gossip.” – Grenville Kleiser
“It hasn’t always been that I have gossiped or lied. Sometimes I just talk too much. Or I repeated the words of others, which I should not have.” – Karen Ehman
“Isn’t it kind of silly to think that tearing someone else down builds you up?” – Sean Covey
“Insecure people only eclipse your sun because they’re jealous of your daylight and tired of their dark, starless nights.” – Shannon L. Alder
“History is nothing but gossip about the past, with the hope that it might be true.” – Gore Vidal
“He gossips habitually; he lacks the common wisdom to keep still that deadly enemy of man, his own tongue.” – Mark Twain
“Great minds discuss ideas. Average minds discuss events. Small minds discuss people.” – Henry Thomas Buckle
Funny Gossip Quotes
“Rumor travels faster, but it don’t stay put as long as truth.” – Will Rogers
“Perhaps you haven’t been accused, exactly, but you have struggled with gossip which has made you look bad. These situations can be very powerful since they can set expectations for people you have never met simply because they hear the lie first, and so can form an opinion about you before you have had the chance to show them your true self.” – Robert Jirda
“Perhaps even more than broken bones, words can hurt forever.” – James Garbarino
“People will question all the good things they hear about you but believe all the bad without a second thought.”
“People who love themselves, don’t hurt other people. The more we hate ourselves, the more we want others to suffer.” – Dan Pearce
“People who judge harshly, criticize and condemn others through gossip, rumor or bad word of mouth are setting themselves up for the same unfair trials.” – Scott Allan
“If your foot slips, you may recover your balance, but if your tongue slips, you cannot recall your words.” – Martin Vanbee
“If you’re horrible to me, I’m going to write a song about it, and you won’t like it. That’s how I operate.” – Taylor Swift
“If you reveal your secrets to the wind, you should not blame the wind for revealing them to the trees.” – Kahlil Gibran
“If you must slander someone don’t speak it – but write it – write it in the sand, near the water’s edge!” – Napoleon Hill
“If you haven’t got anything nice to say about anybody come sit next to me.” – Alice Roosevelt Longworth
“If you gossip – you need to hush. Now. If you listen to gossip – you need to stop. Now. If you are a victim of gossip – you need to become a victor. Now.” – Jeff Abrams
“If you cannot be positive, then at least be quiet.” – Joel Osteen
“If you can’t say anything nice, then don’t say anything at all.” – Aesop
“I have Social Disease. I have to go out every night. If I stay home one night I start spreading rumors to my dogs.” – Andy Warhol
“I guess rumors are more exciting than the truth.” – Venus Williams
“I despise people who go to the gutter on either the right or the left and hurl rocks at those in the center.” – Dwight Eisenhower
“How to be happy: Ignore people who think they know more about you than you do.” – John Edward
“How much time he gains who does not look to see what his neighbour says or does or thinks, but only at what he does himself, to make it just and holy.” – Marcus Aurelius
“As leaders of our organizations and businesses, we have to move away from participating in petty politics, gossip, and attacks on people who aren’t as popular. By setting an example in boosting up the team, those who we work with should do the same.” – Nathan Neil
“All literature is gossip.” – Truman Capote
“Ah, well, the truth is always one thing, but in a way it’s the other thing, the gossip, that counts. It shows where people’s hearts lie.” – Paul Scott
“A visiting minister began to share about the impact of gossip and criticism. Rather than focus on the harm done by speaking negative words, however, he taught about the damage done simply by listening to them.” – Dr. Michael D. Sedler
“A real Christian is a person who can give his pet parrot to the town gossip.” – Billy Graham
“A lot of problems in the world would be solved if we talked to each other instead of about each other.” – Nickey Gumbel
“A gossip betrays a confidence, but a trustworthy person keeps a secret.” – Proverbs 11:13 NIV
“A coward talks to everyone but you.” – Shannon L. Alder
“A blow with a word strikes deeper than a blow with a sword.” – Robert Burton
“Whoever gossips to you, will gossip about you.” – Spanish Proverb
Family Gossip Quotes
“Most gossip is envy in disguise.” – Matt Haig
“Most comedy is based on getting a laugh at somebody else’s expense. And I find that that’s just a form of bullying in a major way. So I want to be an example that you can be funny and be kind, and make people laugh without hurting somebody else’s feelings.” – Ellen DeGeneres
“Loose tongues are worse than wicked hands.” – Jewish Proverb
“Live in such a way that you would not be ashamed to sell your parrot to the town gossip.” – Will Rogers
“Let’s just be honest about it. Gossip, in its essence, is a form of retaliation. You’re trying to get back at the person who offended you by talking about them behind their back.” – Rick Warren
“Let today be the day you speak only the good you know of other people and encourage – others to do the same.” – Steve Maraboli
“Let the greater part of the news thou hearest be the least part of what thou believest.” – Quarles
“I’ve been the girl who gossiped about another, and I’ve been the girl who has been gossiped about. And guess what? It’s miserable both ways.” – Cara Alwill Leyba
“It’s important to stand up to all forms of bullying, and it’s even more important for those who are around you to be just as courageous and stand with you!” – Normani Kordei
“If you are prone to gossip, you may want to reexamine your own needs and wants.” – Byron Pulsifer
“If people have gossiped about you, make sure that your basic stance is for them. This doesn’t mean that you must trust them in the same way you did before they gossiped about you. It does mean you should want what is best for them, even at a personal cost.” – Matthew C. Mitchell
“Forget the slander that you hear before you can repeat it. Forget each slight, each spite, each sheer wherever you may meet it.” – Priscilla Leonard
“Fire and swords are slow engines of destruction, compared to the tongue of a Gossip.” – Richard Steele
“Deflect gossip about a person with uplifting and edifying words about them, and never say anything you wouldn’t want that person to hear.” – Tony Dungy
“Deception takes place when you intentionally try to get someone to believe something you know is not true. It occurs in numerous forms, depending upon the creativity and the desire of the deceiver.” – Deborah Smith Pegues
See also: 300 Best Family Quotes and Sayings
Don’t Gossip Quotes
“The people who are bullying you, they’re insecure about who they are, and that’s why they’re bullying you. It never has to do with the person they’re bullying. They desperately want to be loved and be accepted, and they go out of their way to make people feel unaccepted so that they’re not alone.” – Madelaine Petsch
“The only time people dislike gossip is when you gossip about them.” – Will Rogers
“The more drastic action is to remove all those social media apps that do not provide benefits to your life, to your well-being or to your freedom of mind. This means that you remove, delete in fact, any social media application that does not meet your definition of being free from those who simply love to gossip, those who ask inappropriate questions, those who live each day focusing on social media rather than what I call real meaningful person to person exchanges, and from those who seem to spend their time devoted to the negativity around them rather than contributing to the positive aspects of life.” – Byron Pulsifer
“The key to good eavesdropping is not getting caught.” – Lemony Snicket
“The biggest liar in the world is They Say.” – Douglas Malloch
“Nothing productive is ever achieved as a result of spreading, or listening to gossip. Don’t waste your time! You can make more productive use of it.” – Catherine Pulsifer
“Not allowing yourself to get dragged into gossip and talking behind people’s backs can be a challenge but is essential as part of the master plan. It is one of the Ten Golden Rules.” – M.D. Wilson
“No one gossips about other people’s secret virtues.” – Bertrand Russell
“Never speak disrespectfully of Society, Algernon. Only people who can’t get into it do that.” – Oscar Wilde
“Never make negative comments or spread rumors about anyone. It depreciates their reputation and yours.” – Brian Koslow
“Never engage in gossip, it kills your soul, and wounds another’s heart.” – Steven Aitchison
“Never believe anything bad about anybody unless you positively know it to be true; never tell even that unless you feel that it is absolutely necessary – and remember that God is listening while you tell it.” – Henry vanDyke
“Never be bullied into silence. Never allow yourself to be made a victim. Accept no one’s definition of your life; define yourself.” – Robert Frost
“I resolve to speak ill of no man whatever, not even in a matter of truth; but rather by some means excuse the faults I hear charged upon others, and upon proper occasions speak all the good I know of everybody.” – Benjamin Franklin
“I never gossip. I observe. And then relay my observations to practically everyone.” – Gail Carriger
“Don’t waste your time with explanations: people only hear what they want to hear.” – Paulo Coelho
“Doesn’t matter what you do, or how you do it, your neighbors are gonna talk about you anyway.” – Felder Rushing
“Do not repeat anything you will not sign your name to.”
“Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many.” – Gautama Buddha
Friends Gossip Quotes
“There is so much good in the worst of us, and so much bad in the best of us, that it hardly becomes any of us to talk about the rest of us.” – Edward Wallis Hoch
“There is just two important things to remember about gossip for it to be caring and not harmful to the gossiper or gossipee. First, we need to be willing to repeat whatever we are saying directly to the person and do it. And, second, there has to be absolutely no judmentalism in it. If we are not clear on these two points, then we’d better keep our mouths shut.” – Anne Wilson Schaef
“The truth is, words can hurt. And while they don’t physically break bones, they can damage your spirit.” – Susan Sprague
“The truth is incontrovertible, malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end; there it is.” – Winston Churchill
“The things most people want to know about are usually none of their business.” – George Bernard Shaw
“If you sitting with a group of friends that are gossiping about people then you should raise your voice and tell the friends that this is none of their business to talk about people lives, lifestyle’s or what so ever, initially it can be, it hard to convince them but not impossible to evaluate.” – David Dashner
“Fake friends believe in rumors. Real friends believe in you.” – Yolanda Hadid
“Count not him among your friends who will retail your privacies to the world.” – Publilius Syrus
“A dishonest man spreads strife, and a whisperer separates close friends.” – Proverbs 16:28
“Courage is fire, and bullying is smoke.” – Benjamin Disraeli
“Bullying has been around since humans have been around, I think. I think it is wrong.” – India Eisley
“Believe nothing of what you hear and only half of what you see.”
“Be less curious about people and more curious about ideas.” – Marie Curie
“Be Impeccable With Your Word. Speak with integrity. Say only what you mean. Avoid using the word to speak against yourself or to gossip about others. Use the power of your word in the direction of truth and love.” – Miguel Angel Ruiz
“Attacks can come in many forms: rumors, notes, and other ways. When we invest our time in small talk (gossip), we can only accomplish small things, if anything.” – David DeNotaris
Small Town Gossip Quotes
“Who gossips with you will gossip of you.” – Irish Proverbs
“Who brings a tale takes two away.” – Irish Proverb
“When it comes to gossip, I have to readily admit men are as guilty as women.” – Marilyn Monroe
“What you don’t see with your eyes, don’t witness with your mouth.” – Jewish Proverb
“What man ever openly apologizes for slander? It is not so much a feeling of slander as it is that of a massive lie, a misdeed not only to the slandered but also to those manipulated in the process. He has made them all, every one, his enemies, thereupon he is so overwhelmed with guilt that he will deny it until his grave.” – Criss Jami
“Trying to squash a rumor is like trying to un-ring a bell.” – Shana Alexander
“Truth is not exciting enough to those who depend on the characters and lives of their neighbors for all their amusement.” – George Bancroft
“Today also means that you value everyone’s feelings and that you really listen openly to what each person has to say rather than just wanting to put your two cents worth into the conversation without really understanding what is being said or asked to you.” – Byron Pulsifer
“To a philosopher all news, as it is called, is gossip, and they who edit and read it are old women over their tea.” – Henry David Thoreau
“They say’ is often a great liar.” – Proverb
“They have the unique ability to listen to one story and understand another.” – Pandora Poikilos
“There isn’t much to be seen in a little town, but what you hear makes up for it.” – Kin Hubbard
“In small towns, news travels at the speed of boredom.” – Carlos Ruiz Zafón
“In a little town, there are many mouths which talk, and very few heads which think.” – Victor Hugo
“Every day or two, I strolled to the village to hear some of the gossip which is incessantly going on there, circulating either from mouth to mouth, or from newspaper to newspaper, and which, taken in homeopathic doses, was really as refreshing in its way as the rustle of leaves and the peeping of frogs.” – Henry David Thoreau
Office Gossip Quotes
“That which is everybody’s business is nobody’s business.” – Izaak Walton
“Subjective secondhand speech is exemplified by gossip, which hearsay is sometimes likened to.” – Jennifer Andrus
“Sticks and stones may break our bones, but words will break our hearts.” – Robert Fulghum
“Stay at home in your mind. Don’t recite other people’s opinions.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Some say our national pastime is baseball. Not me. It’s gossip.” – Erma Bombeck
“Small minds with little to do.” – Irish Saying
“Secrecy sets barriers between men, but at the same time offers the seductive temptation to break through the barriers by gossip or confession.” – Georg Simmel
“Rumours began with the whispered gossip of native servants and spread quickly to the rest of the population.” – Paul Scott
“Rumors are nearly as old as human history itself, with some evidence dating back to ancient Rome.” – Alpha Traits
“Rumors are mostly a projection of the individual who started them.” – Roya R. Rad
“Office gossip is like a virus that spreads faster than the flu.”
“Gossip is just a fancy word for talking behind someone’s back.”
“Office gossip is a cancer that eats away at productivity and morale.”
“The only thing worse than being the subject of office gossip is being the one spreading it.”
“Gossip is the art of saying nothing in a way that leaves nothing unsaid.”
“If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all. Especially in the office.”
“Office gossip is like a game of telephone, by the time it reaches the end, it’s hardly recognizable.”
“Gossip is a lazy person’s way of feeling important.”
“In the workplace, gossip is the ultimate distraction from getting things done.”
“Gossip is like a boomerang, it always comes back to haunt you.”
Gossip Quotes Bible
“The Bible refers to negative comments or stories regarding other people as “evil reports.” This may seem like a strong term, but a careful search through the Scriptures shows that our gossip and truth-stretching is much more than idle chatter. This type of speech carries with it far-reaching ramifications that affect not only the life of the speaker but the life of the listener.” – Dr. Michael D. Sedler
“The acceptable year of the Lord is that year when women will start using the telephone for constructive purposes and not to spread malicious gossip and false rumors on their neighbors. The acceptable year of the Lord is any year when men will stop throwing away the precious lives that God has given them in riotous living.” – Martin Luther King Jr.
“Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruits.” – Proverbs 18:21 ESV
“A gossip betrays a confidence, but a trustworthy person keeps a secret.” – Proverbs 11:13
“The words of a gossip are like choice morsels; they go down to the inmost parts.” – Proverbs 18:8
“A perverse person stirs up conflict, and a gossip separates close friends.” – Proverbs 16:28
“Without wood a fire goes out; without gossip a quarrel dies down.” – Proverbs 26:20
“Whoever goes about slandering reveals secrets, but he who is trustworthy in spirit keeps a thing covered.” – Proverbs 11:13
“Besides that, they learn to be idlers, going about from house to house, and not only idlers, but also gossips and busybodies, saying what they should not.” – 1 Timothy 5:13
“Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.” – Ephesians 4:29
“For lack of wood the fire goes out, and where there is no whisperer, quarreling ceases.” – Proverbs 26:20
“Whoever spreads slander is a fool.” – Proverbs 10:18
“You shall not spread a false report. You shall not join hands with a wicked man to be a malicious witness.” – Exodus 23:1
“A dishonest man spreads strife, and a whisperer separates close friends.” – Proverbs 16:28
“The words of a whisperer are like delicious morsels; they go down into the inner parts of the body.” – Proverbs 26:22
“Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.” – Ephesians 4:29
“Whoever guards his mouth preserves his life; he who opens wide his lips comes to ruin.” – Proverbs 13:3
“Set a guard, O Lord, over my mouth; keep watch over the door of my lips!” – Psalm 141:3
In Conclusion
I know gossip, slander, and false accusations can be hurtful and unnecessary. It’s one thing to form good habits and keep from sharing gossip ourselves. It can be challenging to confront ourselves honestly and recognize when sharing rumors or spreading gossip. It’s even more challenging to notice when friends are engaging in gossip and to help them see why they should stop.
What is your favorite gossip quote? I would love to hear it! Meanwhile, keep avoiding gossip and corrupt communication. Share your experience and tips on how you deal with gossip in the comment. Your words may help someone who is reading this right now.