"Defame" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... 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 ...
— Dulcibel - A Tale of Old Salem • Henry Peterson
... on or oppress, ruin, damage, upon, persecute, slander, defame, injure, pervert, victimize, defile, malign, prostitute, vilify, disparage, maltreat, rail at, violate, harm, misemploy, ravish, vituperate, ill-treat, misuse, reproach, wrong. ...
— English Synonyms and Antonyms - With Notes on the Correct Use of Prepositions • James Champlin Fernald
... protecting her and her play? And why should the sex and business standards of his world be entirely different from those of hers or any other world! On the other hand why shouldn't they all double-cross and prey on and defame and applaud each other to their heart's content? Why should they care if they were judged by—? At this part Mr. Vandeford's bitter reflections were suddenly invaded by a perceptible collapse of Miss Adair's soft and proud young body against his, and a round, ...
— Blue-grass and Broadway • Maria Thompson Daviess
... this response, some 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 Great Events by Famous Historians, Volume 07 • Various
... of mankind their wars divide, And women hate all men, and them deride; And some demented hurl aside their gowns, And queens their robes discard and jewelled crowns, And rush upon the streets bereft of shame, Their forms expose, and all the gods defame. Alas! from earth the Queen of Love has gone, And lovers 'void their haunts with faces wan And spurn from them the hateful thought of love, For love no longer reigns, all life to move. An awful thrill now speeds through Hades' doors, And shakes with horror all the dismal floors; A wail upon the breeze ...
— Babylonian and Assyrian Literature • Anonymous
... offspring of immorality, as they do not hesitate to say that all children are bastards whose parents were not married by the priestcraft; but still these Protestant parents allow their children to be taught by those who villify and defame their parents' names. ...
— Thirty Years In Hell - Or, From Darkness to Light • Bernard Fresenborg
... is a very good one. I would not lose the point that narrow-minded fanatics, who decry the theatre and defame its artists, are absolutely the advocates of depraved and barbarous amusements. For wherever a good drama and a well-regulated theatre decline, some distorted form of theatrical entertainment will infallibly ...
— The Letters of Charles Dickens - Vol. 2 (of 3), 1857-1870 • Charles Dickens
... poured in upon her from strangers and friends, some commending and 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 ...
— The Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony (Volume 1 of 2) • Ida Husted Harper
... attempt to convince me that my father's honor—his good name—is involved, then I tell you that it is not true! Either a terrible mistake has been made or a deliberate conspiracy is on foot—the blackest sort of conspiracy, to defame the dead!" ...
— The Crevice • William John Burns and Isabel Ostrander
... of his brother. The election is impending and a meeting of the electors has been called for the following day. Harold is the candidate of the Left. It now becomes a question with the party of the Right so to ridicule and defame him as to ruin his chances. His position as prospective son-in-law of the rich Mr. Evje lends an air of importance and respectability to his candidacy. Mr. Evje must therefore be induced, or, if necessary, ...
— Essays on Scandinavian Literature • Hjalmar Hjorth Boyesen
... attempted at all. The Loyalists were not writers, but workers. Almost the only history of them has been written by their enemies, whose object was to conceal the treatment they received, to depreciate their merits and defame their character, for the vindication of which it is only of late years that materials have been procured. It is the object of this history to vindicate their character as a body, to exhibit their principles and patriotism, and to ...
— The Loyalists of America and Their Times, Vol. 2 of 2 - From 1620-1816 • Edgerton Ryerson
... Avoid politicians, who are come to be great vagabonds, who drink bad liquor and give their thoughts to base designs against the nation's gold. If you become great and valorous, historians will no doubt defame you, and lay crimes of which you were innocent at your door, as is common with them. But you must bear what they say of you with Christian fortitude, remembering, always, that it is a delight with them to tear greatness from its high throne." The parson ...
— The Life and Adventures of Maj. Roger Sherman Potter • "Pheleg Van Trusedale"
... sudden anger. "Sir Monk, how dare you defame our dear Lady? She is always true and faithful, and as you say you are her servant, no doubt she has made you her messenger to bring my money. Tell me truly how much you have in your coffers, and I will thank you for coming so punctually." The monk replied: "Sir, ...
— Hero-Myths & Legends of the British Race • Maud Isabel Ebbutt
... but found strength to write and publish a pamphlet, The late News from Brussels unmasked, and His Majesty vindicated from the base calumny and scandal therein fixed on him, 'in defence of his Majesty, against a wicked forg'd paper, pretended to be sent from Bruxells to defame his Majesties person and vertues, and render him odious, now when everybody was in hope and expectation of the General and Parliament recalling him, and establishing ye government on its antient and right basis.' Early ...
— Sylva, Vol. 1 (of 2) - Or A Discourse of Forest Trees • John Evelyn
... gentlemen. Continue your insults; defame the name of an honest man who is attimpting to convey to yer dull comprehinsions some idea of the wonders of the acrobatic ring. I'll turn a hand-spring for yez meself that will illustrate what I mane," ...
— The Fortunes of Oliver Horn • F. Hopkinson Smith
... rudeness of conquest and the needs of the day, whose bivouac-fires blacken the sweetest forest glades. I have come prepared to see all this, to dislike it, but not with stupid narrowness to distrust or defame. On the contrary, while I will not be so obliging as to confound ugliness with beauty, discord with harmony, and laud and be contented with all I meet, when it conflicts with my best desires and tastes, I trust by reverent faith to woo the mighty meaning of the scene, perhaps to foresee ...
— At Home And Abroad - Or, Things And Thoughts In America and Europe • Margaret Fuller Ossoli
... thy voice, Dare not defame my bosom’s choice. That nymph, the fairest ’neath the sun, Has sworn an oath, a solemn one; She vowed by her baptismal rite, Beneath the bough one blessed night, Her hand my own enclasping hard, ...
— The Brother Avenged - and Other Ballads - - - Translator: George Borrow • Thomas J. Wise
... occasionally acting the part of the sophist and the buffoon? Much may be said, in accounting for this phenomenon, about his widely extended reputation, his imposing presence, the vulgar curiosity to see a man whom even the smallest country newspaper thought of sufficient importance to defame, his power of giving vitality to simple words which the most ignorant of his auditors could easily understand, and the instinctive respect which the rudest kind of men feel for a grand specimen of robust manhood. ...
— The Great Speeches and Orations of Daniel Webster • Daniel Webster
... this 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 ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, No. 327 - Vol. 53, January, 1843 • Various
... fierce unreason should league and lie and defame and smite, We that know thee, how far below thee the hatred burns of the sons of night, We that love thee, behold above thee the witness ...
— Poems and Ballads (Third Series) - Taken from The Collected Poetical Works of Algernon Charles - Swinburne—Vol. III • Algernon Charles Swinburne
... going to and fro upon the scaffold upon every side, he entreated the spectators to pray to God to bestow on him strength. Arundel he asked, as if he expected the wish to be granted by James, to 'desire the King that no scandalous writings to defame him might be published after his death.' To a question from Tounson he replied that he died in the faith professed by the Church of England, and hoped to have his sins washed away by the precious ...
— Sir Walter Ralegh - A Biography • William Stebbing
... stand up now, stand up now, You noble Diggers all, stand up now, The waste land to maintain, seeing Cavaliers by name Your digging do disdain and persons all defame. Stand ...
— The Digger Movement in the Days of the Commonwealth • Lewis H. Berens
... greed, and darkness. Though it don Apollo's guise, 'tis but Apollyon. To shackle, poison, palsy is its aim. Venom and violence never yet have won A victory truly worthy of the name. To call this thing Toil's friend is friendship to defame. ...
— Punch, Or The London Charivari, Vol. 99, September 13, 1890 • Various
... made it a life-long object to vilify and defame his wife. He had used for that one particular purpose every talent that he possessed. He had left it as a last charge to Moore to pursue the warfare after death, which Moore had done to some purpose; and Christopher ...
— Lady Byron Vindicated • Harriet Beecher Stowe
... professional feeling, I thought it my duty to say 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 thus ...
— Bibliomania; or Book-Madness - A Bibliographical Romance • Thomas Frognall Dibdin
... it please your ladyship! This old man's son, by name Bethlen Bathory, 90 Stands charged, on weighty evidence, that he, On yester-eve, being his lordship's birth-day, Did traitorously defame Lord Casimir: The lord high ...
— The Complete Poetical Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge - Vol I and II • Samuel Taylor Coleridge
... 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
... Sedition 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 imprisonment ...
— Union and Democracy • Allen Johnson
... forged check yet. Enter this house again, repeat your infamous lie, and you shall rot in Chesholm jail! I spared you then for your sister's sake—for the name you bear and disgrace—but come here again and defame my wife, and I'll transport you though you were my brother. Now ...
— A Terrible Secret • May Agnes Fleming
... which has never ceased from barbarism, and that they are not fit to govern themselves. Politicians who were never known to risk a five-pound note in helping to develop Ireland will toss down their fifties to help to defame her. Such is the outlook. Against this campaign of malice, hatred, and all uncharitableness it is the duty of every good citizen to say his word, and in the following pages I say mine. This little book is not a compendium of facts, and so does not ...
— The Open Secret of Ireland • T. M. Kettle
... Bishop of Quebec, that the Secretary of State would 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 never entertained a doubt; and to ...
— The Rise of Canada, from Barbarism to Wealth and Civilisation - Volume 1 • Charles Roger
... salutations galore to our uncle[FN70] the glorious King! Know that I am at hand with the baggage-train: so come thou forth to meet me with the troops." Cried the King, "Allah blacken thy brow, O Wazir! How often wilt thou defame my son-in-law's name and call him liar and impostor? Behold, he is come with the baggage-train and thou art naught but a traitor." The Minister hung his head ground-wards in shame and confusion and replied, "O King of the age, I said not this save because of the long delay ...
— The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Volume 10 • Richard F. Burton
... where they lived; that had left wives, children, and houses and lands to visit them with a living call to repentance. And though the priests generally set themselves to oppose them, and wrote against them, and insinuated most false and scandalous stories to defame them, stirring up the magistrates to suppress them, especially in those northern parts; yet God was pleased to fill them with his living power, and give them such an open door of utterance in his service, that there was a mighty convincement over ...
— A Brief Account of the Rise and Progress of the People Called Quakers • William Penn
... 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 ...
— Modern Painters Volume I (of V) • John Ruskin
... first place concerning their boasting that our Confession was refuted from the holy gospels, this is so manifest a lie that they themselves well know it to be an abominable falsehood. With this rouge they wanted to tint their faces and to defame us, since they noticed very well that their affair was leaky, leprous, and filthy, and despite such deficiency nevertheless was to be honored. Their heart thought: Ours is an evil cause, this we know very well, but we shall say the Lutherans were refuted; that's enough. Who will compel us ...
— Historical Introductions to the Symbolical Books of the Evangelical Lutheran Church • Friedrich Bente
... so in this habit they stood about Socrates being fast asleep. Then shee which bare the sword sayd unto the other, Behold sister Panthia, this is my deare and sweet heart, which both day and night hath abused my wanton youthfulnesse. This is he, who little regarding my love, doth not only defame me with reproachfull words, but also intendeth to run away. And I shall be forsaken by like craft as Vlysses did use, and shall continually bewaile my solitarinesse as Calipso. Which said, shee pointed towards mee that lay under the bed, and shewed me to Panthia. ...
— The Golden Asse • Lucius Apuleius
... Mai stere, lo, what thou hast do! Lo, hier ben nou we Sostres tuo; O Raviner, lo hier thi preie, With whom so falsliche on the weie 5920 Thou hast thi tirannye wroght. Lo, nou it is somdel aboght, And bet it schal, for of thi dede The world schal evere singe and rede In remembrance of thi defame: For thou to love hast do such schame, That it schal nevere be foryete." With that he sterte up fro the mete, And schof the bord unto the flor, And cauhte a swerd anon and suor 5930 That thei scholde of his handes dye. And ...
— Confessio Amantis - Tales of the Seven Deadly Sins, 1330-1408 A.D. • John Gower
... others should enjoy theirs also. To deprive them were to prejudice his own claims. But he that feels himself destitute of worth, and despairs of reaching the good favour of society, is thence tempted to disparage and defame such as do. This course he takes as the best soother of his disappointed feelings and the chief solace for his conscious defects. Seeing he cannot rise to the standard of others, he would bring down that of others to his. He cannot directly ...
— Talkers - With Illustrations • John Bate
... Amram's son, nor deem it crime, That he, deception's master, bears thy name. Nabi we call the prophet of truths sublime, Like him of Ba'al, who doth the truth defame." ...
— Jewish Literature and Other Essays • Gustav Karpeles
... me, the most glaring neglect of the common civilities and attentions paid me by all former governors in the worst of times, and even by the most inveterate of my enemies. He insulted my servants, endeavored to defame my character by unjustly censuring my administration, and extended his boundless usurpation to the whole government of my dominions, in all the branches of judicature and police; and, in violation of the express articles of the agreements, ...
— The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. III. (of 12) • Edmund Burke
... celebrity, We seldom meet with such as he. John Rochester, a man of old, Who's life a tale of goodness told, He steered through time from envy free, You'd scarcely find an enemy, Who o'er his honored dust would dare Defame the ashes resting there; For such as he laws ne'er were made, Peace to his gentle vanished shade! Well, will it be for James and John If they walk the same path upon Which their departed sire trod With love ...
— Recollections of Bytown and Its Old Inhabitants • William Pittman Lett
... brand, post, stigmatize, vilify, defame, slur, cast a slur upon, hold up to shame, send to Coventry; tread under foot, trample under foot; show up, drag through the mire, heap dirt upon; reprehend &c. 932. bring low, put down, snub; take down a peg, take down a peg lower, take down a ...
— Roget's Thesaurus
... thunderbolt. His being is shaken to its foundations. He strives to contain himself in outward deference to the Court, but a storm of suppressed sorrow and indignation rages beneath all his words: now uttering itself in pitying tender reverence for Pompilia's memory; now in scorn of those who would defame her; now in anger at himself, who is casting suspicion on her innocence by the very passion with which he defends it, now in defiance of those who choose to call the passion by the vulgar name of love. He tears up ...
— A Handbook to the Works of Browning (6th ed.) • Mrs. Sutherland Orr
... them tell All things in which they think they do excel: No panegyric needs their praise record, An Englishman ne'er wants his own good word. His first discourses gen'rally appear, Prologued with his own wond'rous character: When, to illustrate his own good name, He never fails his neighbour to defame. And yet he really designs no wrong, His malice goes no further than his tongue. But, pleased to tattle, he delights to rail, To satisfy the letch'ry of a tale. His own dear praises close the ample speech, Tells ...
— The True-Born Englishman - A Satire • Daniel Defoe
... 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] ...
— Tamburlaine the Great, Part II. • Christopher Marlowe
... 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
... fabric, were reproached by Philip of Macedon to prostitute themselves; by letting out their arms to the lusts of others, while they leave their own liberty barren and without legitimate issue; so I do not defame these people; the Switzer for valor has no superior, the Hollander for industry no equal; but themselves in the meantime shall so much the less excuse their governments, seeing that to the Switz it is well enough known that the ensigns of his commonwealth have no other motto ...
— The Commonwealth of Oceana • James Harrington
... fleet, could sweep the commerce of France from the seas. Fox and his coadjutors with great eloquence and energy opposed the war. Their efforts were, however, unavailing. The people of England, notwithstanding all the efforts of the government to defame the character of the First Consul, still cherished the conviction that, after all, Napoleon was their friend. Napoleon, in subsequent years, while reviewing these scenes of his early conflicts, with characteristic eloquence and magnanimity, gave utterance to the following sentiments ...
— Napoleon Bonaparte • John S. C. Abbott
... muckrakes and to defend New York against all who defame and censure it the Association for New York was ...
— Appearances - Being Notes of Travel • Goldsworthy Lowes Dickinson
... a trial with him in a court of justice. But the House of Commons was too just not to send him to this tribunal, whose justice they cannot doubt, whose penetration he cannot elude, and whose decision will justify those managers whose characters he attempted to defame. ...
— The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. X. (of 12) • Edmund Burke
... this new Aristarchus, Hebdomadary Flams! Billevesees hebdomadaires! and Menage having published a law book, which Sallo had treated with severe raillery, he entered into a long argument to prove, according to Justinian, that a lawyer is not allowed to defame another lawyer, &c.: Senatori maledicere non licet, remaledicere jus fasque est. Others loudly declaimed against this new species of imperial tyranny, and this attempt to regulate the public opinion by that of an individual. Sallo, after having published only his third volume, felt the ...
— Curiosities of Literature, Vol. 1 (of 3) • Isaac D'Israeli
... 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 of ...
— The Isle Of Pines (1668) - and, An Essay in Bibliography by W. C. Ford • Henry Neville
... the shrewd King, goggling his great eyes Cannily. 'Did he not defame the Scots?' 'That's true,' said Camden, like a man that hears Truth for the first time. 'O ay, he defamed 'em,' The King said, very wisely, once again. 'Ah, but,' says Camden, like a man that strives With more ...
— Collected Poems - Volume Two (of 2) • Alfred Noyes |
