Blaise Pascal on Gossip

"I set this down as a fact, that if all men knew what each said of the other, there would not be four friends in the world."

(Quoted in "Do Your Friendships Live Out the Gospel?" by Jonathan Holmes in the newest issue of the Journal of Biblical Counseling.  Holmes says, "Though gossip and slander can (and should) be forgiven like any other sin, it can take considerable time for trust to be rebuilt, and the hard truth is that many friendships never recover fully" (pg.37)).