English Translation
Even if malicious gossip is being circulated around someone, it doesn’t necessarily mean that the value of that person will be diminished.
This whole French idiom has an entry on Wiktionary that states that it is equivalent to the English idiom “sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me”.
This translation from one idiom to another makes a lot more sense to me than the complicated English translation/explanation provided here.