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.
In nine times out of ten, the slanderous tongue belongs to a disappointed person.
Slander is a poison which kills charity, both in the slanderer and the one who listens.
Backbite. To speak of a man as you find him when he can't find you.
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.
A generous confession disarms slander.
Every one in a crowd has the power to throw dirt; none out of ten have the inclination.
A man calumniated is doubly injured -- first by him who utters the calumny, and then by him who believes it.
If a man could say nothing against a character but what he can prove, history could not be written.
You have got to be careful quoting Ronald Reagan, because when you quote him accurately it is called mudslinging.
Let nobody speak mischief of anybody.
— Plato
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.
To vilify a great man is the readiest way in which a little man can himself attain greatness.
Slander expires at a good woman's door.
Be thou as chaste as ice, as pure as snow, thou shalt not escape calumny.
Slanderers do not hurt me because they do not hit me.
— Socrates
I will make a bargain with the Republicans. If they will stop telling lies about Democrats, we will stop telling the truth about them.
It is harder to kill a whisper than even a shouted calumny.
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.
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.
What is said of a man is nothing. The point is, who says it.
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.