Proverbs 26:19-21

The Message

^18-19 People who shrug off deliberate deceptions,
    saying, “I didn’t mean it, I was only joking,”
Are worse than careless campers
    who walk away from smoldering campfires.

²⁰ When you run out of wood, the fire goes out;
    when the gossip ends, the quarrel dies down.

²¹ A quarrelsome person in a dispute
    is like kerosene thrown on a fire.