Abandoning false speech, the ascetic Gotama dwells refraining from fal — Evil speaking

"Never incline your ear to words of mischief. For men often say an improper word to make trial of a virgins steadfastness, to see if she hears it with pleasure, and if she is ready to unbend at every silly jest. Such persons applaud whatever you affirm and deny whatever you deny; they speak of you as not only holy but accomplished, and say that in you there is no guile. Behold, say they, a true hand-maid of Christ; behold entire singleness of heart. How different from that rough, unsightly, countrified fright, who most likely never married because she could never find a husband. Our natural weakness induces us readily to listen to such flatterers; but, though we may blush and reply that such praise is more than our due, the soul within us rejoices to hear itself praised."

"Idle persons and busybodies, whether virgins or widows; such as go from house to house calling on married women and displaying an unblushing effrontery greater than that of a stage parasite, cast from you as you would the plague. For evil communications corrupt good manners, 1 Corinthians 15:33 and women like these care for nothing but their lowest appetites. They will often urge you, saying, My dear creature, make the best of your advantages, and live while life is yours, and Surely you are not laying up money for your children. Given to wine and wantonness, they instill all manner of mischief into peoples minds, and induce even the most austere to indulge in enervating pleasures. And when they have begun to wax wanton against Christ they will marry, having condemnation because they have rejected their first faith. 1 Timothy 5:11-12 Do not seek to appear over-eloquent, nor trifle with verse, nor make yourself gay with lyric songs. And do not, out of affectation, follow the sickly taste of married ladies who, now pressing their teeth together, now keeping their lips wide apart, speak with a lisp, and purposely clip their words, because they fancy that to pronounce them naturally is a mark of country breeding. Accordingly they find pleasure in what I may call an adultery of the tongue."

"Speak against nobody, and do not slander your mothers son. Who are you that judgest the servant of another? To his own lord he stands or falls; yea, he shall be made to stand, for the Lord has power to make him stand."

"A doctor might as well stand with his saddle-bags and scatter their contents through the community as a man tell all that he knows about people indiscriminately. Medicine is to be administered carefully. It is the work of skill to properly administer it. It is to be given according to the constitution, temperament, and condition of the patient. And truth, being a medicine, instead of being thrown about heedlessly, and indiscriminately, and with brutal barbarity, is to be administered with care and discretion."

"Is the scrupulous attention I am paying to the government of my tongue at all proportioned to that tremendous truth revealed through St. James, that if I do not bridle my tongue, all my religion is vain?"

"Never throw mud. You may miss your mark, but you must have dirty hands."