Calumny Quotes

• Where there is calumny, there is Satan himself.

  Pope Francis

  Satan

  "Our appetite for fake news does real harm to U.S. democracy". www.americamagazine.org. November 21, 2016.

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• There is nothing which wings its flight so swiftly as calumny, nothing is uttered with more ease; nothing is listened to with more readiness, nothing disbursed more widely.

  Marcus Tullius Cicero

  Wings, Ease, Flight

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• Calumnies are answered best with silence.

  Ben Jonson

  Silence, Advice

  'Volpone' (1605) act 2, sc. 2

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• Nothing is so swift as calumny, nothing is more easily propagated, nothing more readily credited, nothing more widely circulated.

  Marcus Tullius Cicero

  Calumny Is

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• Genius involves both envy and calumny.

  Alexander Pope

  Envy, Genius

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• A man's reputation is not in his own keeping, but lies at the mercy of the profligacy of others. Calumny requires no proof. The throwing out [of] malicious imputations against any character leaves a stain, which no after-refutation can wipe out. To create an unfavorable impression, it is not necessary that certain things should be true, but that they have been said. The imagination is of so delicate a texture that even words wound it.

  William Hazlitt

  Lying, Character, Men

  William Hazlitt (1837). “Characteristics: in the manner of Rochefoucault's Maxims [by W. Hazlitt].”, p.75

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• Hurl your calumnies boldly; something is sure to stick.

  Francis Bacon

  Sticks

  "Partitions of the Sciences". Book by Francis Bacon, 1623.

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• Calumny is a monstrous vice: for, where parties indulge in it, there are always two that are actively engaged in doing wrong, and one who is subject to injury. The calumniator inflicts wrong by slandering the absent; he who gives credit to the calumny before he has investigated the truth is equally implicated. The person traduced is doubly injured--first by him who propagates, and secondly by him who credits the calumny.

  Herodotus

  Party, Calumny Is, Two

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• Calumny is a vice of curious constitution; trying to kill it keeps it alive; leave it to itself and it will die a natural death.

  Thomas Paine

  Calumny Is, Trying, Vices

  Thomas Paine, John P. Kaminski (2002). “Citizen Paine: Thomas Paine's Thoughts on Man, Government, Society, and Religion”, p.55, Rowman & Littlefield

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• Virtue itself scapes not calumnious strokes.

  William Shakespeare

  Virtue, Scapes, Strokes

  William Shakespeare (2001). “Hamlet”, p.63, Classic Books Company

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• A man calumniated is doubly injured -- first by him who utters the calumny, and then by him who believes it.

  Herodotus

  Believe, Men, Calumny Is

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• Calumniators are those who have neither good hearts nor good understandings. We ought not to think ill of any one till we have palpable proof; and even then we should not expose them to others.

  Robert Emmet

  Heart, Thinking, Calumny Is

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• Neglected, calumny soon expires, show that you are hurt, and you give it the appearance of truth.

  Tacitus

  Hurt, Calumny Is, Giving

  Cornelius Tacitus (1830). “Tacitus”, p.313

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• I do not want to see the Republican party ride to political victory on the Four Horsemen of Calumny-fear, ignorance, bigotry and smear.

  Margaret Chase Smith

  Fear, Party, Ignorance

  Speech in Senate, 1 June 1950 See Blasco-Ibáñez 1; Grantland Rice 2

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• He has outsoared the shadow of our night; envy and calumny and hate and pain, and that unrest which men miscall delight, can touch him not and torture not again; from the contagion of the world's slow stain, he is secure.

  Percy Bysshe Shelley

  Death, Pain, Hate

  'Adonais' (1821) st. 40

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• I have performed my duty to my God, my country, and my family. I have nothing to fear in approaching death. To me it is the mere shadow of God's protecting wing . . . Here I will rest in quiet and peace beyond the reach of calumny's poisoned shaft, the influence of envy and jealous enemies, where treason and traitors or State backsliders and hypocrites in church can have no peace.

  Andrew Johnson

  Country, Jealous, Hypocrite

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• Do you never look at yourself when you abuse another person?

  Plautus

  Abuse, Looks, Look At Yourself

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• There is something mean in human nature that prefers to think evil, that gives a willing ear and a ready welcome to calumny, a sort of jealousy of goodness and greatness and things of good report.

  Richard Le Gallienne

  Jealousy, Mean, Thinking

  Richard Le Gallienne (1915). “Vanishing Roads, and Other Essays”

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• The world will never be long without some good reason to hate the unhappy; their real faults are immediately detected; and if those are not sufficient to sink them into infamy, an individual weight of calumny will be super-added.

  Samuel Johnson

  Happiness, Hate, Real

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• No might nor greatness in mortality Can censure 'scape; back- wounding calumny The whitest virtue strikes. What king so strong Can tie the gall up in the slanderous tongue?

  William Shakespeare

  Strong, Kings, Greatness

  William Shakespeare, N. W. Bawcutt (1998). “Measure for Measure”, p.172, Oxford University Press, USA

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• Mobs may assemble, calumny may defame, but the work of God will go forth boldly, nobly, and independent.

  Joseph Smith, Jr.

  Independent, Missionary, May

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• I have much to say why my reputation should be rescued from the load of false accusation and calumny which has been heaped upon it.

  Robert Emmet

  Calumny Is, Reputation, Accusation

  Charles Phillips, John Finlay (barrister-at-law.), Robert Emmet (1820). “The Speeches of Charles Phillip: Esquire, Delivered at the Bar and on Various Occasions, in Ireland and England”, p.272

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• A nickname a man may chance to wear out; but a system of calumnity, pursued by a faction, may descend even to posterity. This principal has taken full effect on this state favorite.

  Isaac D'Israeli

  Taken, Men, May

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• Calumniate, calumniate; there will always be something which sticks.

  Pierre Beaumarchais

  Calumny Is, Sticks

  "'Le Barbier de Séville' ('The Barber of Seville')". Play by Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais, Act 3, Scene 13, 1775.

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• I am beholden to calumny, that she hath so endeavored to belie me.-It shall make me set a surer guard on myself, and keep a better watch upon my actions.

  Ben Jonson

  Calumny Is, Watches, Action

  Ben Jonson, William Gifford (1855). “The Works of Ben Jonson: With a Biographical Memoir”, p.867

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