In Blame of Tale-Bearers and Their Baseness

Someone said to a pure-hearted mystic: 'Do you know what so-and-so said about you behind your back?' He replied: 'Quiet, brother, let it rest. Better not to know what an enemy said.' Those who carry an enemy's message are surely more your enemy than the enemy himself. No one brings an enemy's words to a friend, except one who is that enemy's ally. My enemy could not have hurt me so with his insult as I now tremble to hear it repeated. You are the greater enemy, for you carry to my ears what he said only in secret. The tale-bearer revives an old quarrel and rouses even a gentle, decent man to anger. Flee, as far as you can, from any companion who wakes a sleeping trouble and tells it to rise. A dungeon, with a man chained by the foot inside it, is better than stirring trouble from one place to another. A quarrel between two people is like a fire, and the wretched tale-bearer is the one hauling the firewood.