Libel Quotes

• I am dumbfounded that there hasn't been a crackdown with the libel and slander laws on some of these would-be writers and reporters on the Internet.

  Walter Cronkite

  Law, Would Be, Internet

  "Walter Cronkite lays down his pen", www.today.com. August 17, 2004.

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• An injurious lie is an uncommendable thing; and so, also, and in the same degree, is an injurious truth a fact that is recognized by the law of libel .

  Mark Twain

  Lying, Law, Degrees

  Mark Twain (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Mark Twain (Illustrated)”, p.2657, Delphi Classics

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• Journalists who make mistakes get sued for libel; historians who make mistakes get to publish a revised edition.

  Bill Moyers

  Mistake, Journalism, Historian

  Bill Moyers (2008). “Moyers on Democracy”, p.109, Anchor

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• Political truth is libel; religious truth, blasphemy.

  William Hazlitt

  Religious, Truth, Political

  William Hazlitt, William Ernest Henley (1904). “The Collected Works of William Hazlitt: Fugitive writings”

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• Truth is generally the best vindication against slander

  Abraham Lincoln

  Truth, Honesty, Slander

  Gordon Leidner, Abraham Lincoln (2009). “Abraham Lincoln: Quotes, Quips, and Speeches”, p.37, Sourcebooks, Inc.

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• The greater the truth the greater the libel.

  Edward Law, 1st Earl of Ellenborough

  Trust, Truth, Greater

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• As any editor will tell you, startling newsroom revelations are generally met with queries about where the information came from and how the reporter got it. Seriously startling revelations are followed by the vetting of libel lawyers.

  Graydon Carter

  Editors, Information, Lawyer

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• The problem is that in our country, they make it almost impossible for politicians to win anything. In England it's easier to win a libel suit.

  Rand Paul

  Country, Winning, Suits

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• Libel actions, when we look at them in perspective, are an ornament of a civilized society. They have replaced, after all, at least in most cases, a resort to weapons in defense of a reputation.

  Henry Anatole Grunwald

  Perspective, Ornaments, Defense

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• To call woman the weaker sex is a libel; it is man's injustice to woman. If by strength is meant brute strength, then, indeed, is woman less brute than man. If by strength is meant moral power, then woman is immeasurably man's superior.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Inspirational, Sex, Men

  Mahatma Gandhi (2005). “All Men Are Brothers”, p.157, A&C Black

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• I've stopped caring about skeptics, but if they libel or defame me they will end up in court.

  Uri Geller

  Caring, Criticism, Fame

  "Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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• I mean, in some cases with libel laws, you know, they can write things about people who have no course of action, because they can't afford to take legal action against them.

  Elton John

  Writing, Mean, Law

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• Newspapermen learn to call a murderer "an alleged murderer" and the King of England "the alleged King of England" in order to avoid libel suits.

  Stephen Leacock

  Kings, Order, Suits

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• It is better, however, for his own reputation that the story-teller should risk a few actions for libel on account of these unfortunate coincidences than that he should adopt the melancholy device of using blanks or asterisks.

  James Payn

  Risk, Stories, Action

  James Payn (1882). “Sammlung”

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• To call woman the weaker sex is a libel; it is man's injustice to woman. If by strength is meant brute strength, then, indeed, is woman less brute than man. If by strength is meant moral power, then woman is immeasurably man's superior. Has she not greater intuition, is she not more self-sacrificing, has she not greater powers of endurance, has she not greater courage? Without her, man could not be. If nonviolence is the law of our being, the future is with woman. Who can make a more effective appeal to the heart than woman?

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Spiritual, Sex, Heart

  Mahatma Gandhi (1930). “Young India”

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• Send forth the child and childish man together, and blush for the pride that libels our own old happy state, and gives its title to an ugly and distorted image.

  Charles Dickens

  Children, Pride, Men

  Charles Dickens (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Charles Dickens (Illustrated)”, p.2066, Delphi Classics

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• All the libel lawyers will tell you there's no libel any more, that everyone's given up.

  Ian Hislop

  Feet, Lawyer, Given

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• If by strength is meant moral power, then woman is immeasurably man's superior

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Independent, Equality, Men

  Mahatma Gandhi (2005). “All Men Are Brothers”, p.157, A&C Black

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• Within hours of a tragedy unfolding, journalists and pundits should not manufacture a blood libel that serves only to incite the very hatred and violence they purport to condemn. That is reprehensible.

  Sarah Palin

  Blood, Hatred, Political

  "Palin Criticizes Manufacturers of 'Blood Libel' as Proponents of Speech Limits Cite Sharron Angle", www.foxnews.com. January 12, 2011.

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• This is not a book in the ordinary sense of the word. No, this is a prolonged insult, a gob of spit in the face of art, a kick in the pants to God, Man, Destiny, Time, Love, Beauty... what you will.

  Henry Miller

  Art, Book, Destiny

  Tropic of Cancer ch. 1 (1934)

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• The only rules comedy can tolerate are those of taste, and the only limitations those of libel.

  James Thurber

  Taste, Comedy, Dignity

  1961 Lanterns and Lances,'The Duchess and the Bugs'.

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• He that filches from me my good name robs me of that which enriches him and makes me poor indeed.

  William Shakespeare

  Names, Reputation, Poor

  'Othello' (1602-4) act 3, sc. 3, l. 155

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• Nor do they trust their tongue alone, but speak a language of their own; can read a nod, a shrug, a look, far better than a printed book; convey a libel in a frown, and wink a reputation down.

  Jonathan Swift

  Book, Looks, Scandal

  'The Journal of a Modern Lady' (1729) l. 188

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• Every libel, which is called famosus libellus, is made either against a private man, or against a public person. If it be against a private man, it deserves a severe punishment.

  Edward Coke

  Men, Made, Persons

  77 Eng. Rep. 250, 1605.

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• When public men indulge themselves in abuse, when they deny others a fair trial, when they resort to innuendo and insinuation, to libel, scandal, and suspicion, then our democratic society is outraged, and democracy is baffled. It has no apparatus to deal with the boor, the liar, the lout, and the antidemocrat in general.

  J. William Fulbright

  Liars, Men, Indulge In

  J. William Fulbright's speech in the Senate on McCarthyism (February 2, 1954), as quoted in "Congressional Record", Volume 100 (p. 1105), 1954.

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