On Slander and the Harm It Causes

Do not speak ill of anyone, good or bad, my noble and wise friend. For with a bad man you make an enemy of yourself, and if he is a good man, you become the bad one. Whoever tells you that so and so is bad, know that he is really talking about himself. For to describe that man's fault he must state it, and his own bad nature shows through the telling. The moment you speak to run people down, even if what you say is true, you have done wrong. A man once let his tongue run loose in gossip, and a proud and knowing man said to him: Do not bring up people's faults in front of me, and do not make me suspicious of you yourself. Suppose his standing dropped a little, that will not add anything to your own rank. Someone said, and I took it for a joke, that theft is more respectable than gossip. I said to him: my friend of troubled mind, this saying struck my ear as strange. What virtue do you see in dishonesty, that you rank it above gossip? Yes, he said, thieves at least show daring; they fill their bellies by the strength of their own arms. But what does that simple gossip gain? He blackens his own record and eats nothing at all!