How frequently are the honesty and integrity of a man disposed of by a smile or shrug! How many good and generous actions have been sunk into oblivion by a distrustful look, or stamped with the imputation of bad motives, by a mysterious and seasonable whisper!
—Laurence Sterne (1713–68) Irish Anglican Novelist, Clergyman
Slander expires at a good woman’s door.
—Danish Proverb
Every one in a crowd has the power to throw dirt; none out of ten have the inclination.
—William Hazlitt (1778–1830) English Essayist
A man’s merits should be fully stated in his absence, but only partially in his presence.
—The Talmud Sacred Text of the Jewish Faith
To vilify a great man is the readiest way in which a little man can himself attain greatness.
—Edgar Allan Poe (1809–49) American Poet
The slanders poured down like Niagara. If you take into consideration the setting—the war and the revolution—and the character of the accused—revolutionary leaders of millions who were conducting their party to the sovereign power—you can say without exaggeration that July 1917 was the month of the most gigantic slander in world history.
—Leon Trotsky (1879–1940) Russian Marxist Revolutionary
O!, many a shaft at random sent
Finds mark the archer little meant!
And many a word at random spoken
May soothe, or wound, a heart that ‘s broken!
—Walter Scott (1771–1832) Scottish Novelist, Poet, Playwright, Lawyer
Talkers will refrain from evil speaking when listeners refrain from evil hearing.
—Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton (1803–73) British Novelist, Poet, Politician
He, who would free from malice pass his days, must live obscure, and never merit praise.
—John Gay (1685–1732) English Poet, Dramatist
Slanderers do not hurt me because they do not hit me.
—Socrates (469BCE–399BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher
No might nor greatness can censure escape; back-wounding calumny the whitest virtue strikes; what king so strong, can tie the gall up in the slanderous tongue?
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
The worthiest people are the most injured by slander, as it is the best fruit which the birds have been pecking at.
—Jonathan Swift (1667–1745) Irish Satirist
The slander of some people is as great a recommendation as the praise of others.
—Henry Fielding (1707–54) English Novelist, Dramatist
The calumniator inflicts wrong by slandering the absent; and he who gives credit to the calumny before he knows it is true, is equally guilty.—The person traduced is doubly injured; by him who propagates, and by him who credits the slander.
—Herodotus (c.485–425 BCE) Ancient Greek Historian
A generous confession disarms slander.
—Thomas Fuller (1608–61) English Cleric, Historian
That thou art blamed, shall not be thy defect; for slander’s mark was ever yet the fair; so thou be good, slander doth but approve thy worth the greater.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
The man that dares traduce, because he can with safety to himself, is not a man.
—William Cowper (1731–1800) English Anglican Poet, Hymn writer
If a man could say nothing against a character but what he can prove, history could not be written.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
I am about courting a girl I have had but little acquaintance with. How shall I come to a knowledge of her faults, and whether she has the virtues I imagine she has? Answer. Commend her among her female acquaintances.
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–90) American Political Leader, Inventor, Diplomat
In nine times out of ten, the slanderous tongue belongs to a disappointed person.
—George Bancroft (1800–91) American Historian, Politician
Let nobody speak mischief of anybody.
—Plato (428 BCE–347 BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher, Mathematician, Educator
Listen, sir, to my words, and give ear to my utterances. Keep from strifes with thy neighbor, and if thou seest that thy friend does anything wrong, guard thy tongue from gossip.
—The Talmud Sacred Text of the Jewish Faith
Slander, whose edge is sharper than the sword; whose tongue outvenoms all the worms of Nile; whose breath rides on the posting winds, and doth belie all corners of the world.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
We cannot control the evil tongues of others, but a good life enables us to despise them.
—Cato the Elder (Marcus Porcius Cato) (234–149 BCE) Roman Statesman
Listen not to a tale-bearer or slanderer, for he tells thee nothing out of good will; but as he discovereth of the secrets of others, so he will of thine in turn.
—Socrates (469BCE–399BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher
Our disputants put me in mind of the cuttlefish that, when he is unable to extricate himself, blackens the water about him till he becomes invisible.
—Joseph Addison (1672–1719) English Essayist, Poet, Playwright, Politician
Close thine ear against him that opens his mouth against another.—If thou receive not his words, they fly back and wound him.—If thou receive them, they flee forward and wound thee.
—Francis Quarles (1592–1644) English Religious Poet
If you are told that such an one speaks ill of you, make no defense against what was said, but answer, “He surely knew not my other faults, else he would not have mentioned these only!”
—Epictetus (55–135) Ancient Greek Philosopher
A man calumniated is doubly injured—first by him who utters the calumny, and then by him who believes it.
—Herodotus (c.485–425 BCE) Ancient Greek Historian
Teach thy tongue to say, “I do not know”.
—The Talmud Sacred Text of the Jewish Faith
Slander cannot make the subject of it either better or worse.—It may represent us in a false light, or place a likeness of us in a bad one, but we are always the same.—Not so the slanderer, for calumny always makes the calumniator worse, but the calumniated never.
—Charles Caleb Colton (c.1780–1832) English Clergyman, Aphorist
To slander is to murder.
—The Talmud Sacred Text of the Jewish Faith
Be thou chaste as ice, and pure as snow, thou shalt not escape calumny.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
Done to death by slanderous tongues.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
It takes your enemy and your friend, working together, to hurt you to the heart; the one to slander you and the other to get the news to you.
—Mark Twain (1835–1910) American Humorist
Divines do rightly infer from the sixth commandment, that scandalizing one’s neighbor with false and malicious reports, whereby I vex his spirit, and consequently impair his healthy is a degree of murder.
—Walter Raleigh (1552–1618) English Courtier, Navigator, Poet
Backbite: To “speak of a man as you find him” when he can’t find you.
—Ambrose Bierce (1842–1913) American Short-story Writer, Journalist
The slanderer and the assassin differ only in the weapon they use; with the one it is the dagger, with the other the tongue.—The former is worse than the latter, for the last only kills the body, while the other murders the reputation and peace.
—Tryon Edwards American Theologian
Rather be thrown into a fiery furnace than bring anyone to public shame.
—The Talmud Sacred Text of the Jewish Faith
Have patience awhile; slanders are not long-lived.—Truth is the child of time; ere long she shall appear to vindicate thee.
—Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) Prussian German Philosopher, Logician
There is nobody so weak of invention that he cannot make up some little stories to vilify his enemy.
—Joseph Addison (1672–1719) English Essayist, Poet, Playwright, Politician
Better no ear at all than one that listeneth to evil.
—The Talmud Sacred Text of the Jewish Faith
Guard thy mouth from uttering an unseemly word.
—The Talmud Sacred Text of the Jewish Faith
The way to check slander is to despise it; attempt to overtake and refute it, and it will outrun you.
—Alexandre Dumas pere (1802–1870) French Novelist, Playwright
Life would be a perpetual flea-hunt if a man were obliged to run down all the innuendoes, inveracities, insinuations, and suspicions which are uttered against him.
—Henry Ward Beecher (1813–87) American Clergyman, Writer
Slander is the revenge of a coward, and dissimulation his defence.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
There is nothing which wings its flight so swiftly as calumny, nothing which is uttered with more ease; nothing is listened to with more readiness, nothing dispersed more widely.
—Cicero (106BCE–43BCE) Roman Philosopher, Orator, Politician, Lawyer
What is said of a man is nothing. The point is, who says it.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
I will make a bargain with the Republicans. If they will stop telling lies about Democrats, we will stop telling the truth about them.
—Adlai Stevenson (1900–65) American Diplomat, Politician, Orator
Slugs crawl and crawl over our cabbages, like the world’s slander over a good name. You may kill them, it is true, but there is the slime.
—Douglas William Jerrold (1803–57) English Writer, Dramatist, Wit