"Defame" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... Mademoiselle had more reason to look sharp after those who enjoyed the greatest share of her favour, than believe their malicious insinuations against innocent people whom they were well known to hate and defame. ...
— The Adventures of Ferdinand Count Fathom, Complete • Tobias Smollett
... to reconcile the people to this great innovation, stories were propagated of the detestable lives of the friars in many of the convents; and great care was taken to defame those whom the court had determined to ruin. The relics also and other superstitions, which had so long been the object of the people's veneration, were exposed to their ridicule; and the religious spirit, now less bent on exterior observances and sensible objects, was ...
— The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.I., Part C. - From Henry VII. to Mary • David Hume
... not, however, merely to vindicate the reputation of those whom writers like these defame, which would but be to anticipate by a few years the natural and inevitable reaction of the public mind, that I am devoting years of labor to the development of the principles on which the great productions of recent art are based. ...
— Modern Painters Volume I (of V) • John Ruskin
... divine, Pardon a muse so mean as mine, Who in her rough imperfect line Thus dares to name thee. To stigmatise false friends of thine Can ne'er defame thee.' ...
— Robert Burns - Famous Scots Series • Gabriel Setoun
... human family. That is its mission. It will never be overcome, or left to other people. "No unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing," said the Prophet Joseph, "persecution may rage; mobs may combine; armies may assemble, calumny may defame, but the truth of God will go forth boldly, nobly, and independently till it has penetrated every continent; visited every clime, swept every country; and sounded in every ear; till the purposes of God shall be accomplished, and the Great Jehovah ...
— A Young Folks' History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints • Nephi Anderson
... you are intruding, as Mr. Weldon says. But you have said so much to defame my nieces in the eyes of our friends, here assembled, that you must ...
— Aunt Jane's Nieces Out West • Edith Van Dyne
... have received from him a series of despatches which would "give that functionary a general and useful knowledge of the state of things in Lower Canada." There were some who had exerted themselves to defame and injure the President, with a view to their own private interests. He particularly alluded to that contemptible animal, Chief Justice Alcock; to his worthy friend and coadjutor, of whose treacherous, plausible, and selfish character, he had ...
— The Rise of Canada, from Barbarism to Wealth and Civilisation - Volume 1 • Charles Roger
... tell 'tis ungently done Thus to defame your wife, abuse your children: Wrong them, you wrong ...
— A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Vol. IX • Various
... stricken down and passed out into the Unknown. Happy fate! to die before the fickle populace had taken up a new idol; to step in an instant beyond the reach of malice—to leave behind the self-seekers that pursue, the hungry horde that follows, the zealots who defame; to escape the dagger-thrust of calumny and receive only the glittering steel that at the same time wrote his name indelibly ...
— Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great, Vol. 1 of 14 - Little Journeys to the Homes of Good Men and Great • Elbert Hubbard
... a draught of a bond for him and his sons to sign to me about the payment of the L20 legacy, which I agreed to, but he would fain have had from me the copy of the deed, which he had forged and did bring me yesterday, but I would not give him it. Says [he] I perceive then you will keep it to defame me with, and desired me not to speak of it, for he did it innocently. Now I confess I do not find any great hurt in the thing, but only to keep from me a sight of the true original deed, wherein perhaps there was something else that may touch this business ...
— Diary of Samuel Pepys, Complete • Samuel Pepys
... and homes. At these iniquities, no less than at many others which equally grieved his spirit, the admiral was obliged to connive. He was conscious, at the same time, that he was sending home a reinforcement of enemies and false witnesses, to defame his character and traduce his conduct, but he had no alternative. To counteract, as much as possible, their misrepresentations, he sent by the same caravel the loyal and upright veteran Miguel Ballester, together with Garcia de Barrantes, empowered to attend to his affairs at court, and furnished ...
— The Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus (Vol. II) • Washington Irving
... worshipful Christian magistrates with heathen magistrates and judges. Hearing him talk in this ribald way, he could no longer doubt the accusation brought against him; for there was no surer proof of a man or woman having dealings with Satan, than to defame and ...
— Dulcibel - A Tale of Old Salem • Henry Peterson
... begging her to continue silent; others censuring and urging her to tell the whole story. Lawyers connected with the case wrote her the shrewdest of pleas, telling her how the other side were trying to defame her character and urging her to speak in self-defense; but it is a significant fact that she received no official summons either during the church committee investigation or ...
— The Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony (Volume 1 of 2) • Ida Husted Harper
... among the great, No pimp of pleasure, and no spy of state. With eyes that pry not, tongue that ne'er repeats, Fond to spread friendships, but to cover heats; To help who want, to forward who excel; This, all who know me, know; who love me, tell; And who unknown defame me, let them be Scribblers or peers, alike are mob to me. This is my plea, on this I rest my cause— What saith my counsel, learned in the laws? F. Your plea is good; but still I say, beware! Laws are explained by men—so have a care. It stands ...
— Essay on Man - Moral Essays and Satires • Alexander Pope
... something!)—but for the sake of showing how dexterously the most important events and palpable truths may be described and perverted by an artful and headstrong disputant. The work was written expressly to defame ELIZABETH, CECIL, and BACON, and to introduce the Romish religion upon the ruins of the Protestant. The author ...
— Bibliomania; or Book-Madness - A Bibliographical Romance • Thomas Frognall Dibdin
... vilest slanders Should make a life so pure as black as pitch? Have you so little knowledge of his heart? Do you so ill distinguish between guilt And innocence? What mist before your eyes Blinds them to virtue so conspicuous? Ah! 'tis too much to let false tongues defame him. Repent; call back your murderous wishes, Sire; Fear, fear lest Heav'n in its severity Hate you enough to hear and grant your pray'rs. Oft in their wrath the gods accept our victims, And oftentimes ...
— Phaedra • Jean Baptiste Racine
... contrariety of opinion, even in those that can defend it no longer, makes proud men angry; there is often found in commentaries a spontaneous strain of invective and contempt, more eager and venomous than is vented by the most furious controvertist in politicks against those whom he is hired to defame. ...
— Preface to Shakespeare • Samuel Johnson
... Richard in familiar talke confessed vnto king Philip, that he would marie the king of Nauarres daughter, and clerelie forsake his sister Adela: which greued king Philip not a little, though he dissembled the matter for a time, and rather alledged other causes of displeasure, wherewith to defame king Richard to the world, as one that sought his owne commoditie in spoiling those whom he ought rather to haue defended. ...
— Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland (2 of 6): England (6 of 12) - Richard the First • Raphael Holinshed
... confess the oaths they undertake Breed little strength to our security, Yet those infirmities that thus defame Their faiths, [66] their honours, and religion, [67] Should not give us presumption to the like. Our faiths are sound, and must be consummate, [68] Religious, righteous, ...
— Tamburlaine the Great, Part II. • Christopher Marlowe
... woman, thou didst not forsake, Though lov'd, thou forborest to grieve me, Though slander'd, thou never couldst shake, Though trusted, thou didst not disclaim me, Though parted, it was not to fly, Though watchful, 'twas not to defame me, Nor mute, that ...
— Life of Lord Byron, Vol. III - With His Letters and Journals • Thomas Moore
... simply their words; words which would stimulate them to higher aims, and enable them the better to endure the trials of prison life. The warden possessed the right, if he chose to exercise it, to interdict this correspondence wholly. But I protest that he had no right to defame those ladies, villify their character, and speak of them to those men, and to prison visitors from whatever part of the country, as "those mean women," "those ...
— The Prison Chaplaincy, And Its Experiences • Hosea Quinby
... Act added to the crimes punishable by the federal courts unlawful conspiracy and the publication of "any false, scandalous, and malicious writings" against the Government, President, or Congress, with the intent to defame them or to bring them into contempt or disrepute. For conspiracy the penalty was a fine not exceeding five thousand dollars and imprisonment not exceeding five years; for seditious libel, a fine not exceeding two thousand dollars and ...
— Union and Democracy • Allen Johnson
... world accompanied men's acts. I tell you," continued Mr Clayton, flushing as he raised his voice, "there are men living now whom I have raised from beggary and want—men, indebted to me for the air they breathe, who calumniate and defame me through the world, and who will not cease to do so till I or they are sleeping in the dust. They owed me every thing, like you—their gratitude was unbounded, even as yours. What assurance have I that you will not deal as hardly by your friend as they have done, ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, No. 327 - Vol. 53, January, 1843 • Various
... our age, are awaking to the consciousness, that, on the day which should be the best of all the week, they have been defrauded of their right, in having solemn dulness palmed upon them, in place of living, earnest, animated truth. Let not ministers, unwisely overlooking this undeniable fact, defame the people, by alleging a growing facility in dissolving the pastoral relation,—a disregard of solemn contracts,—a willingness to dismiss excellent, godly, and devoted men, without other reason than the indisposition to retain them. Be it known to all ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume V, Number 29, March, 1860 - A Magazine Of Literature, Art, And Politics • Various
... defendant in some kind of action every few years or so. Says Aristophanes, "The cicada [grasshopper] sings for only a month, but the people of Athens are buzzing with lawsuits and trials their whole life long." In the jury courts the contentious, tonguey man can spread himself and defame his enemies to his heart's content; and it must be admitted that in a city like Athens, where everybody seems to know everybody else's business almost every citizen is likely to have a number both of warm friends and of bitter enemies. Athenians do not have ...
— A Day In Old Athens • William Stearns Davis
... resort to unusual means of protection from impending peril was necessary. At that crisis was passed the act of July 14, 1798, commonly called the Sedition Act, by which it was provided that any person guilty of uttering a seditious libel against the Government of the United States, with intent to defame the same and bring it into contempt and disrepute, shall be punished by a fine not exceeding two thousand dollars, and by imprisonment not exceeding two years. The act was denounced as tyrannical, oppressive, unconstitutional, and destructive of the liberty ...
— The Trial of Reuben Crandall, M.D. Charged with Publishing and Circulating Seditious and Incendiary Papers, &c. in the District of Columbia, with the Intent of Exciting Servile Insurrection. • Unknown
... Pleasure to have it, none; to lose it, pain; Now grown a part of me: but what use in it? To make men worse by making my sin known? Or sin seem less, the sinner seeming great? Alas for Arthur's greatest knight, a man Not after Arthur's heart! I needs must break These bonds that so defame me: not without She wills it: would I, if she willed it? nay, Who knows? but if I would not, then may God, I pray him, send a sudden Angel down To seize me by the hair and bear me far, And fling me deep in that forgotten ...
— Idylls of the King • Alfred, Lord Tennyson
... of the assessors[80] were for burning her without further delay; which would have been sufficient satisfaction for the doctors, whose authority she rejected, but not for the English, who required a retraction that should defame King Charles. They had recourse to a new admonition and a new preacher, Master Pierre Morice, which was attended by no better result. It was in vain that he dwelt upon the authority of the University of Paris, "which is the light of ...
— The Great Events by Famous Historians, Volume 07 • Various
... horns with the muckrakes and to defend New York against all who defame and censure it the Association for ...
— Appearances - Being Notes of Travel • Goldsworthy Lowes Dickinson
... the entire facts, the public viewed with just indignation this attempt to defame a character which was the nation's pride. Americans felt themselves involved in this atrocious calumny on their most illustrious citizen, and its propagators were frowned ...
— Life And Times Of Washington, Volume 2 • John Frederick Schroeder and Benson John Lossing
... None that I have named as yet Is so good as Margaret. Emily is neat and fine; What do you think of Caroline? How I'm puzzled and perplexed What to choose or think of next! I am in a little fever Lest the name that I should give her Should disgrace her or defame her;— I will leave papa to ...
— The Home Book of Verse, Vol. 1 (of 4) • Various
... liberty is ever ringing in our ears; but thy strange workings defame thee. Thou art rampant in love of the "popular cause," crushing of that which secures liberty to all; and, whilst thou art great at demolishing structures, building firm foundations seems beyond thee, for thereto thou forgetteth to lay the cornerstone well ...
— Our World, or, The Slaveholders Daughter • F. Colburn Adams
... who should defame or speak evil of the Governour, or refuse to come before him upon Summons, should receive a punishment by whipping with Rods, and afterwards be exploded from the society of the rest ...
— The Isle Of Pines (1668) - and, An Essay in Bibliography by W. C. Ford • Henry Neville
... their entrance into the world with the same advantages, and were once looked on as his equals, are apt to think the fame of his merits a reflection on their own deserts. Those who were once his equals envy and defame him, because they now see him the superior; and those who were once his superiors, because they look upon him as their equal." Did Mr. Addison, justly perhaps thinking that, as young Mr. Pope had not had the benefit of a university education, he couldn't ...
— Henry Esmond; The English Humourists; The Four Georges • William Makepeace Thackeray |
