Never throw mud. You may miss your mark, but you will have dirty hands.

Never throw mud. You may miss your mark, but you will have dirty hands.

I am disgraced, impeached, and baffled here;
Pierced to the soul with slander's venomed spear,
The which read more

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.

There are . . . robberies that leave man or woman forever
beggared of peace and joy, yet kept read more

There are . . . robberies that leave man or woman forever
beggared of peace and joy, yet kept secret by the sufferer.

Where it concerns himself,
Who's angry at a slander, makes it true.

Where it concerns himself,
Who's angry at a slander, makes it true.

Slander is the revenge of a coward, and dissimulation his defense

Slander is the revenge of a coward, and dissimulation his defense

The worthiest people are the most injured by slander, as is the best fruit which the birds have been pecking read more

The worthiest people are the most injured by slander, as is the best fruit which the birds have been pecking at.

I hate the man who builds his name
On ruins of another's fame.

I hate the man who builds his name
On ruins of another's fame.

That thou art blamed shall not be thy defect,
For slander's mark was ever yet the fair;
read more

That thou art blamed shall not be thy defect,
For slander's mark was ever yet the fair;
The ornament of beauty is suspect,
A crow that flies in heaven's sweetest air.
So thou be good, slander doth but approve
Thy worth the greater, being wooed of time;
For canker vice the sweetest buds doth love,
And thou present'st a pure unstained prime.

To murder character is as truly a crime as to murder the body: the tongue of the slanderer is brother read more

To murder character is as truly a crime as to murder the body: the tongue of the slanderer is brother to the dagger of the assassin.