Gossip is never fatal until it is denied. Gossip goes on about every human being alive and about all the dead that are alive enough to be remembered, and yet almost never does any harm until some defender makes a controversy. Gossip's a nasty thing, but it's sickly, and if people of good intentions will let it entirely alone, it will die, ninety-nine times out of a hundred.
Booth TarkingtonNobody has a good name in a bad mouth. Nobody has a good name in a silly mouth either.
Booth TarkingtonIt is love in old age, no longer blind, that is true love. For the love's highest intensity doesn't necessarily mean it's highest quality.
Booth TarkingtonMothers see the angel in us because the angel is there. If it's shown to the mother, the son has got an angel to show, hasn't he? When a son cuts somebody's throat the mother only sees it's possible for a misguided angel to act like a devil - and she's entirely right about that!
Booth Tarkington