Choose your words wisely. A friend once told me this little analogy:

The things we say are like the feathers within a pillow. If you go outside on a windy day and rip the pillow open, the feathers will scatter in the wind and you’ll never be able to recover all of them. Similarly, the thoughts we have, once spoken, can no longer be unsaid. What is put in the open, will spread like feathers in the wind.

Think of this analogy the next time you are tempted to gossip.