William Shakespeare on Defamation
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“Virtue itself 'scapes not calumnious strokes.”
- William Shakespeare, S)
“One doth not know How much an ill word may empoison liking.”
- William Shakespeare, S)
“Done to death by slanderous tongues, Was the Hero that here lies.”
- William Shakespeare, S)
“Calumny will sear Virtue itself;—these shrugs, these hums, and ha's.”
- William Shakespeare, S)
“Be thou as chaste as ice, as pure as snow, thou shalt not escape calumny.”
- William Shakespeare, S)
“With ridiculous and awkward action, Which, slanderer, he imitation calls.”
- William Shakespeare, S)
“For slander lives upon succession, Forever housed where it gets possession.”
- William Shakespeare, S)
“I am disgrac'd, impeach'd and baffled here,— Pierc'd to the soul with slander's venom'd spear.”
- William Shakespeare, S)
“If I can do it By aught that I can speak in his dispraise, She shall not long continue love to him.”
- William Shakespeare, S)
“He that filches from me my good name, Robs me of that which not enriches him, And makes me poor indeed.”
- William Shakespeare, The Dictionary of Legal Quotations
“Slander'd 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!”
- William Shakespeare, S)
“I will be hang'd, if some eternal villain, Some busy and insinuating rogue, Some cogging, cozening slave, to get some office, Have not devis'd this slander.”
- William Shakespeare, S)
“That thou art blamed shall not be thy defect, For slander's mark was ever yet the fair; * * * * So thou be good, slander doth but approve Thy worth the greater.”
- William Shakespeare, S)
“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, S)
“King: So haply slander- Whose whisper o'er the world's diameter, As level as the cannon to his blank, Transports his poisoned shot- may miss our name And hit the woundless air.- O, come away! My soul is full of discord and dismay.”
- William Shakespeare, S)
“'Tis slander, Whose edge is sharper than the sword, whose tongue Outvenoms all the worms of Nile, whose breath Rides on the posting winds and doth belie All corners of the world; kings, queens and states, Maids, matrons, nay, the secrets of the grave This viperous slander enters.”
- William Shakespeare, S)