Let nobody speak mischief of anybody.
—Plato (428 BCE–347 BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher, Mathematician, Educator
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
In nine times out of ten, the slanderous tongue belongs to a disappointed person.
—George Bancroft (1800–91) American Historian, Politician
Slander-mongers and those who listen to slander, if I had my way, would all be strung up, the talkers by the tongue, the listeners by the ears.
—Plautus (Titus Maccius Plautus) (c.250–184 BCE) Roman Comic Playwright
Done to death by slanderous tongues.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
Better no ear at all than one that listeneth to evil.
—The Talmud Sacred Text of the Jewish Faith
Slander is the revenge of a coward, and dissimulation his defence.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
Every one in a crowd has the power to throw dirt; none out of ten have the inclination.
—William Hazlitt (1778–1830) English Essayist
If any speak ill of thee, flee home to thy own conscience, and examine thy heart: if thou be guilty, it is a just correction; if not guilty, it is a fair instruction: make use of both; so shalt thou distil honey out of gall, and out of an open enemy create a secret friend.
—Francis Quarles (1592–1644) English Religious 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
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
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 slander of some people is as great a recommendation as the praise of others.
—Henry Fielding (1707–54) English Novelist, Dramatist
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
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 man that dares traduce, because he can with safety to himself, is not a man.
—William Cowper (1731–1800) English Anglican Poet, Hymn writer
Talkers will refrain from evil speaking when listeners refrain from evil hearing.
—Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton (1803–73) British Novelist, Poet, Politician
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
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
To slander is to murder.
—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
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
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
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
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
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
Be thou chaste as ice, and pure as snow, thou shalt not escape calumny.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
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
Guard thy mouth from uttering an unseemly word.
—The Talmud Sacred Text of the Jewish Faith