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.

Done to death by slanderous tongues
Was the Hero that here lies.

Done to death by slanderous tongues
Was the Hero that here lies.

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

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

Cut
Men's throats with whisperings.

Cut
Men's throats with whisperings.

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.

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.

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

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

God knows I loved my niece,
And she is dead, slandered to death by villains,
That dare read more

God knows I loved my niece,
And she is dead, slandered to death by villains,
That dare as well answer a man indeed
As I dare take a serpent by the tongue.
Boys, apes, braggarts, Jacks, milksops!