39 Insightful Gossip Quotes

In a world that thrives on information and communication, gossip sometimes takes center stage, offering a unique lens into human behavior and societal norms. Whether whispered in hushed tones or shared over a cup of coffee, gossip can reveal much about relationships, power dynamics, and even our personal insecurities. We've curated a collection of the top 39 most insightful gossip quotes that delve into both the playful and profound aspects of chatter. These quotes not only entertain but also provoke thought about the significance and impact of our words. Join us as we explore the rich tapestry of human interaction through the sly art of gossip.

1. “Some say our national pastime is baseball. Not me. It's gossip” - Erma Bombeck

2. “Be less curious about people and more curious about ideas.” - Marie Curie

3. “Nobody can buy a hat without gossiping.” - Diana Wynne Jones

4. “It drains the bars and cafes after hours, concentrates the wicked and the guilty along its chipped Formica counter, and thrums with the gossip of criminals, policemen, shtarkers,and schlemiels, whores and night owls ... three or four floaters, solitaries, and drunks between benders lean against the sparkly resin counter, sucking the tea from their shtekelehs and working the calulations of their next big mistake.” - Michael Chabon

5. “No one gossips about other people’s secret virtues.” - Bertrand Russell

6. “Sometimes I think that wisdoms slip from my mind like drool from the lips of an idiot...Where's all this stuff coming from? Is it any good? Any good in, you know, the wisdom sense? Who am I to spout this stuff anyway?Well, here's the thing. You too can find yourself shedding wisdom like cat hair if you only allow yourself the liberty of introspection.Think about what you alone know that no one else does. That one neat wonderful profound insight. It is fully yours. No one else on this planet of about six billion people understands it like you do.Now, see if you can share it with someone. Bestow it, a gift of yourself.Wisdom is like gossip. Except it's the good kind.” - Vera Nazarian

7. “We have one crystal clear reason apart from the blessed happiness of this way of life. It is this: prayer is the core of our day. Take prayer out, and the day would collapse, would be pithless, a straw blown in the wind. But how can you pray--really pray, I mean--with one against who you have a grudge or whom you have been discussing critically with another? Try it. You will find it cannot be done.” - Amy Carmichael

8. “The speed of communications is wondrous to behold. It is also true that speed can multiply the distribution of information that we know to be untrue.” - Edward R. Murrow

9. “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

10. “But if you do know what is taught by plants and weather, you are in on the gossip and can feel truly at home. The sum of a field's forces [become] what we call very loosely the 'spirit of the place.' To know the spirit of a place is to realize that you are a part of a part and that the whole is made or parts, each of which in a whole. You start with the part you are whole in.” - Gary Snyder

11. “No matter what you do, someone always knew you would.” - Ami McKay

12. “This mannerism of what he'd seen of society struck Homer Wells quite forcefully; people, even nice people—because, surely, Wally was nice—would say a host of critical things about someone to whom they would then be perfectly pleasant. At. St. Cloud's, criticism was plainer—and harder, if not impossible, to conceal.” - John Irving

13. “Everything about everybody was very soon known by everybody else.” - Jude Morgan

14. “Rumours began with the whispered gossip of native servants and spread quickly to the rest of the population.” - Paul Scott

15. “What was really unfair about the whole thing was that Oma Kristel hadn't so much exploded as spontaneously combusted. But Gossip is Baron Münchhausen's little sister, and never lets the truth get in the way of a good story.” - Helen Grant

16. “At school, the news that Pia Kolvenbach was moving to England and that her parents were divorcing had circulated with lightening speed. Suddenly I was no longer ostracized for being the Potentially Exploding Girl, but the new attention was worse. I could tell that the girls who sidled up to me and asked with faux-sympathetic smiles whether it was true were doing it on the basis of discussions they had heard between their own parents, to who they would report back like scouts. Soon there would be nothing left of me at all, nothing real: I would be a walking piece of gossip, alternatively tragic and appalling and, worse of all, a poor thing.” - Helen Grant

17. “People like to think the worst. They like to have hushed gossip sessions and point their fingers at someone's problems that are more obvious than their own.” - Marcia Lynn McClure

18. “Don't waste your time with explanations: people only hear what they want to hear.” - Paulo Coelho

19. “How she wished she had Elizabeth to herself for a little so they could discuss what Henry's real intentions were and also how high and mighty Penelope had acted at lunch and what a tremendous insult it was that she'd come at all and did anyone really think she was beautiful with those oversize features anyway.” - Anna Godbersen

20. “If there's one thing I don't look for in a maid, it's discretion. Except with my own secrets, of course.” - Julian Fellowes

21. “Tale-bearers are as bad as the tale-makers.” - Richard Brinsley Sheridan

22. “It would have been funny if I had been an observer and not a participant, an idea that gave me a disconcerting insight into gossip. As I walked beside the silent Tamara, I realized that despite how entertaining certain stories were, at the bottom of every item of gossip there was someone getting hurt.” - Sherwood Smith

23. “A boomerang returns back to the person who throws it.But first, while moving in a circle, it hits its target.So does gossip.” - Vera Nazarian

24. “The gossip mill runs on estrogen.” - Kim Harrington

25. “I said I don't want to know," Kailani said firmly, her voice suddenly too loud. Cristina sat back into the bench, her eyes wide and disappointed. Then Ana started waving wildly, her small hand arcing for her mother's undivided attention, and, as Kailani watched in silence, the child slipped safely down the slide."Kailani to Cristina” - Siobhan Fallon

26. “There is a certain amount which I shan't mention publicly," Elizabeth said. "Things about Lucia which I should never dream of stating openly.""Those are just the ones I should like to hear about most," said Diva. "Just a few little titbits.” - E.F. Benson

27. “I'm really not quite as frippery a fellow as you seem to think! I own that in my grasstime I committed a great many follies and extravagances, but, believe me, I've long since out-grown them! I don't think they were any worse than what nine out of ten youngsters commit, but unfortunately I achieved, through certain circumstances, a notoriety which most young men escape. I was born with a natural aptitude for the sporting pursuits you regard with so much distrust, and I inherited, at far too early an age, a fortune which not only enabled me to indulge my tastes in the most expensive manner imaginable, but which made me an object of such interest that everything I did was noted, and talked of. That's heady stuff for greenhorns, you know! There was a time when I gave the gossips plenty to talk about. But do give me credit for having seen the error of my ways!” - Georgette Heyer

28. “Upon my tongues continual slanders ride,The which in every language I pronounce,Stuffing the ears of men with false reports.” - William Shakespeare

29. “Often those that criticise others reveal what he himself lacks.” - Shannon L. Alder

30. “What people say and feel about you when you've left a room is precisely your job while you are in it.” - Rasheed Ogunlaru

31. “Oh, this time I was doing the gossiping. You should really dismiss me for disloyalty, not to mention the disrespect I'm showing right now by talking to you like this.” - Jayne Bauling

32. “Stupidity is to have amnesia over your own faults when the person you hate makes theirs.” - Shannon L. Alder

33. “Popular culture is a place where pity is called compassion, flattery is called love, propaganda is called knowledge, tension is called peace, gossip is called news, and auto-tune is called singing.” - Criss Jami

34. “Fill your mind before you empty your mouth.” - Habeeb Akande

35. “„So ist es,“ sagte die Herzogin, „und die Moral davon ist – Mit Liebe und Gesange hält man die Welt im Gange!“„Wer sagte denn,“ flüsterte Alice, „es geschehe dadurch, daß Jeder vor seiner Thüre fege.” - Lewis Carroll

36. “You're not playing the game," he said grimly. "English gossip isn't supposed to get back to the person it's about.” - Elaine Dundy

37. “Lebedev: ...There'll be a scandal, the tongues of the whole district will buzz with gossip, but it's better to go through a scandal, isn't it, than to destroy yourself for your whole life.” - Anton Chekhov

38. “In Morocco," said Osman, "word spreads like a fire tearing through the depths of Hell.” - Tahir Shah

39. “Deceit for personal gain is one of history's most recurring crimes. Man's first step towards change would be thinking, counter-arguing, re-thinking, twisting, straightening, perfecting, then believing every original idea he intends to make public before making it public. There is always an angle from which an absolute truth may appear askew just as there is always a personal emotion, or a personal agenda, which alienates the ultimate good of mankind.” - Criss Jami