Precept and Practice – SEPTEMBER 3 – Gossip
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)
There are two ways of treating gossip about other people, and they’re both good ways. One is not to listen to it, and the other is not to repeat it.
(G. H. Lorimer – Old Gorgon Graham’s Letters to his Son)
If you your lips would guard from slips,
Five things observe with care
Of whom you speak,
to whom you speak,
And how,
and when,
and where.
oooOOOooo
From the Introduction to Precept and Practice
The kindly welcome given to my other little books, ‘Being and Doing’ and ‘Character and Conduct,’ must be my excuse for adding another collection of extracts to the number now in circulation.
The quotations are gathered from the books of many earnest thinkers, and deal with Life in all its length and breadth, with ourselves, our characters, our plain unvarnished faults and weaknesses, our often untoward circumstances, and with all that drags us down;- with our purposes, our religion, our love and friendships, and with all that uplifts us;- with our relation to others, our influence and responsibilities, and finally with those stages of our journey which bring us to the Road’s Last Turn and to the Silent Land.
CONSTANCE M. WHISHAW
Suffolk Vicar 