Gossip is spreading other people's misery.

I am more interested in the purpose of government than its mechanics-though the means should at least be good enough to lead to the ends desired.

You give bureaucrats power over others, and when the others are poor and helpless, nothing matches government. More than any single exploitive tyrannical force, the possibility of what government can do is absolutely terrifying.

The system doesn't have to be pure, but it does have to work.

If one leads them with administrative measures and uses punishments to make them conform, the people will be evasive, but if one leads them with virtue, they will come up to expectations.

Just as the larger fish in the sea swallow the smaller, so also is it with men. If not for the fear of government, the stronger would swallow the weaker.

You give bureaucrats power over others, and when the others are poor and helpless, nothing matches government. More than any single exploitive tyrannical force, the possibility of what government can do is absolutely terrifying.

Count not him among your friends who will retail your privacies to the world.

I don't call it gossip, I call it 'emotional speculation'.

Hast thou heard a word against thy neighbor? Let it die within thee, trusting that it will not burst thee.