Gossip, Shoptalk, and Small Talk : Page 252

In the above criterion I very consciously used the expression, can reasonably wish. With that phrase I reserve the right to twit a friend a bit behind his back, as I do it to his face. How much? Only to the extent that I do not seriously mind being so twitted myself. I know many people will protest that of absent friends one must never speak except in compliments. Nevertheless, I don't think charity demands that one must always and everywhere go around solemnly eulogizing one's friends, in the manner of de mortuis nil nisi bonum, of the dead nothing but compliments. I actually fear that sort of mealy-mouthed approach to friendship. I cannot but feel like Mr. Bennett in Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. He said, "For what do we live but to make sport for our neighbors, and to laugh at them in our turn."