Conversation is an exercise of the mind; gossip is merely an exercise of the tongue.
Gossip is the art of saying nothing in a way that leaves practically nothing unsaid.
I'm not afraid of facts, I welcome facts but a congeries of facts is not equivalent to an idea. This is the essential fallacy of the so-called "scientific" mind. People who mistake facts for ideas are incomplete thinkers; they are gossips.
Scandal is gossip made tedious by morality.