Tale-bearers worse than Back-biters
Project Gutenberg EPUB edition
Sadi and Edwards, A. Hart
Some one said to a pious man, “Knowest thou what such a one said concerning thee?”
“Silence!” he replied; “it is best not to know what an enemy said. Those who carry the words of an enemy are assuredly worse than the enemy himself. Only they convey the speech of an enemy to a friend who are in agreement with the enemy. Thou art worse than an enemy, for thou revealest what he said in private.”
A tale-bearer makes an old strife new; fly as far as thou art able from one who stirs up a dormant quarrel.
To be tied by the feet in a gloomy pit is better than to carry mischief from place to place.
A quarrel is like a fire which the tale-bearer feeds with fuel.