Sunday, July 25, 2010 – Slander
I hate the man who builds his name / On ruins of another’s fame. ~ John Gay, The Poet and the Rose
If slander be a snake, it is a winged one – it flies as well as creeps. ~ Douglas Jerrold
Where it concerns himself, / Who’s angry at a slander, makes it true. ~ Ben Jonson, Catiline (III, 1)
Your tittle-tattlers, and those who listen to slander, by my good will should all be hanged – the former by their tongues, the latter by the ears. [Homines qui gestant, quique auscultant crimina, Si meo arbitratu liceat, omnes pendeant, Gestores linguis, auditores auribus.] ~ Plautus (Titus Maccius Plautus), Pseudolus (I, 5, 12)
No, ’tis 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. / Kings, queens. and states, / Maids, matrons, nay, the secrets of the grave / This viperous slander enters. ~ Shakespeare, Cymbeline (Pisanio at III, iv)
And truly, I’ll devise some honest slanders / To stain my cousin with. / One doth not know / How much an ill word may empoison liking. ~ Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing (Hero at III, i)
I am disgraced, impeached, and baffled here; / Pierced to the soul with slander’s venomed spear, / The which no balm can cure but his heart-blood / Which breathed this poison. ~ William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of King Richard the Second (Mowbray at I, i)
A slander is like a hornet; if you can’t kill it dead the first time, better not strike at it. ~ Josh Billings
Slander is the revenge of a coward, and dissimulation of his defense. ~ Samuel Johnson
The worthiest people are the most injured by slander, as is the best fruit which the birds have been pecking at. ~ Jonathan Swift
Have patience awhile; slanders are not long-lived. Truth is the child of time; ere long she shall appear to vindicate thee. ~ Immanuel Kant
He who knows how to flatter also knows how to slander. ~ Napoleon Bonaparte
Slander is worse than cannibalism. ~ John Chrysostom
The common argument that crime is caused by poverty is a kind of slander on the poor. ~ H. L. Mencken
A generous confession disarms slander. ~ Thomas Fuller
A man calumniated is doubly injured – first by him who utters the calumny, and then by him who believes it. ~ Herodotus
Backbite. To ”speak of a man as you find him” when he can’t find you. ~ Ambrose Bierce
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
It is always to be understood that a lady takes all you detract from the rest of her sex to be a gift to her.~ Joseph Addison
If a man could say nothing against a character but what he can prove, history could not be written. ~ Samuel Johnson
If you know somebody is going to be awfully annoyed by something you write, that’s obviously very satisfying, and if they howl with rage or cry, that’s honey. ~ A. N. Wilson
It takes an enemy and a 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
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
What is said of a man is nothing. The point is, who says it. ~ Oscar Wilde
You have got to be careful quoting Ronald Reagan, because when you quote him accurately it is called mudslinging. ~ Fritz Mondale
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
Slander is the balm of malignity. ~ Sebastien-Roch-Nicolas de Chamfort
The slander of some people is as great a recommendation as the praise of others. ~ Henry Fielding
Defamation is becoming a necessity of life; inasmuch as a dish of tea in the morning or evening cannot be digested without this stimulant. ~ Thomas Jefferson
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
Just Above Sunset 