You May Also Like / View all maxioms
A slander is like a hornet; if you can't kill it dead the first time, better not strike at it.
A slander is like a hornet; if you can't kill it dead the first time, better not strike at it.
And truly, I'll devise some honest slanders
To stain my cousin with. One doth not know
How read more
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.
Slander is the revenge of a coward, and dissimulation his defense
Slander is the revenge of a coward, and dissimulation his defense
Your tittle-tattlers, and those who listen to slander, by my good
will should all be hanged--the former by their read more
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.
[Lat., Homines qui gestant, quique auscultant crimina,
Si meo arbitratu liceat, omnes pendeant,
Gestores linguis, auditores auribus.]
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.
. . . For slander lives upon succession,
For ever housed where it gets possession.
. . . For slander lives upon succession,
For ever housed where it gets possession.
Done to death by slanderous tongues
Was the Hero that here lies.
Done to death by slanderous tongues
Was the Hero that here lies.
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.
'Twas slander filled her mouth with lying words;
Slander, the foulest whelp of Sin.
'Twas slander filled her mouth with lying words;
Slander, the foulest whelp of Sin.