Fire and swords are slow engines of destruction, compared to the tongue of a Gossip.

Fire and swords are slow engines of destruction, compared to the tongue of a Gossip.

Many a man's tongue shakes out his master's undoing.

I never gossip - but after all, a tongue is given one to speak with, and I'm not deaf mute.

That you most certainly are not. A tongue, Henet, may sometimes be a weapon. A tongue may cause a death - may cause more than one death. I hope your tongue, Henet, has not caused a death.

Without wood a fire goes out; without gossip a quarrel dies down

I drink for the effect, because it loosens up the tongue a little bit.