This was a real tough one... ironically I had to pick a quote which is over 2000 years old. Socrates's final speech is still relevant today since rumors, gossip and malice are parasitical which has not only conquered politics and corporations but also the media. This is the seminal force behind the decline of this great country (and not deficit, outsourcing, globalization etc). With a clear conscience, I could only think of this quote from Bettany Hughes's new book The Hemlock Cup: Socrates, Athens and the Search for the Good Life (here):
When Socrates finally stood up to face his charges in front of his fellow citizens in a religious court in the Athenian agora, he articulated one of the great pities of human society. "It is not my crimes that will convict me," he said. "But instead, rumor, gossip; the fact that by whispering together you will persuade yourselves that I am guilty."
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