quotations about rumors
It is rather important to understand the technique of rumors. The wise man does not scoff at them, for while they are often absurd, they are rarely baseless.
CHRISTOPHER MORLEY
"As To Rumors", Mince Pie: Adventures on the Sunny Side of Grub Street
How violently do rumors blow the sails of popular judgments.
PHILIP SIDNEY
attributed, Day's Collacon
Rumors can shape the public opinion of a society by affecting and coordinating the individual beliefs of its members.
ZHENG YOU XIA & LAILEI HUANG
"Emergence of Social Rumor: Modeling, Analysis, and Simulations", Computational Science
The art of spreading rumors may be compared to the art of pin-making, there is usually some truth, which I call the wire; as this passes from hand to hand, one gives it a polish, another a point, others make and put on the head, and at last the pin is completed.
J. NEWTON
attributed, The Saturday Magazine, October 11, 1834
It was a running joke; everyone was aware of how ridiculous the rumor mill was, and yet they all shamelessly participated in it.
JAMIE MCGUIRE
Beautiful Disaster
Rumors may appear to be random and sometimes malicious accounts of ongoing situations. Yet they serve an extremely important function. Rumors are a means of transmitting critical information about the nature of the disaster situation within the affected population. This information may be simplistic, incomplete, and even incorrect. Nevertheless, it gives disaster victims some guidance and structure in a highly unusual, uncertain situation.
SAUNDRA K. SCHNEIDER
Flirting with Disaster
Coming events cast their rumors before. From a careful study of rumors the discerning may learn a good deal, providing always that they never take them at face value but try to read beneath the surface.
CHRISTOPHER MORLEY
"As To Rumors", Mince Pie: Adventures on the Sunny Side of Grub Street
Rumors explain the unknown or the poorly understood, creating comprehensible narratives. They make sense out of ambiguous events. Sometimes even those who are the subject of rumors are tempted to believe or at least repeat them because they throw a more positive light on events than the personal version would do.
KSENIJA BILBIJA
The Art of Truth-telling about Authoritarian Rule
Many a good name has been lost by a false rumor.
CHARLES HUTTON
attributed, Day's Collacon
A rumor is like a check--never endorse it till you're sure it's genuine.
G. KLEISER
Dictionary of Proverbs
A rumor is like busting a feather pillow in a windstorm. You never get all the feathers back.
EARL EMERSON
Vertical Burn
Some people and some groups are predisposed to accept certain rumors, because those rumors are compatible with their self-interest, or with what they think they know to be true.
CASS R. SUNSTEIN
On Rumors
Where do rumors come from?... I suppose the majority of rumors are a combination of leaked information and the astounding imaginations of numerous storytellers. And, of course, the hope that things aren't really as boring as they seem on the surface.
MAX FREI
The Stranger
Rumors aren't always your best source of information.
MICHAEL PRESCOTT
In Dark Places
Rumor travels faster, but it don't stay put as long as truth.
WILL ROGERS
The Illiterate Digest
You and your rumors have two things in common: you're both fake, and you both get around.
ANONYMOUS
A rumor--always efficacious in semi-literate societies.
ARTHUR F. WRIGHT
The Sui Dynasty
Idle rumors were also added to well-founded apprehensions.
MARCUS ANNAEUS LUCANUS
Pharsalia
There exists no strict line between a rumor and information. The dividing line between information and a rumor is subjective and the result of one's own belief. People call something information when they consider it true and call it a rumor when they consider it false.
MARK SCHINDLER
Rumors in Financial Markets
Rumors are a kind of exhalation or intellectual perfume thrown off by the news of the day. Some events are more aromatic than others; they can be detected by the trained pointer long before they happen. When things are going on that have a strong vibration--what foreign correspondents love to call a "repercussion"--they cause a good deal of mind-quaking. An event getting ready to happen is one of the most interesting things to watch. By a sort of mental radiation it fills men's minds with surmises and conjectures. Curiously enough, due perhaps to the innate perversity of man, most of the rumors suggest the exact opposite of what is going to happen.
CHRISTOPHER MORLEY
Mince Pie