“Silence never shows itself to so great an advantage, as when it is made the reply to calumny and defamation, provided that we give no just occasion for them.”

— Joseph Addison

No. 133.
The Tatler (1711–1714)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Silence never shows itself to so great an advantage, as when it is made the reply to calumny and defamation, provided t…" by Joseph Addison?

Joseph Addison 226

politician, writer and playwright 1672–1719

Related quotes

“I do not know whether my enemies will reply to me, or adopt the role of silence. Whatever they may do I declare to them that this letter will be my only reply to all their calumnies, past, present or future; and I give my word of honor to the public that whatsoever they may say or do, I shall not write a single line more in my justification.”

Alessandro Cagliostro (1743–1795) Italian occultist

Postscriptum
Cagliostro’s Letter to the English People (1787)

“Calumnies are answered best with silence.”

Ben Jonson Volpone

Volpone (1606), Act II, scene ii

“Great occasions rally great principles, and brace the mind to a lofty bearing, a bearing that is even above itself. But trials that make no occasion at all, leave it to show the goodness and beauty it has in its own disposition. And here precisely is the superhuman glory of Christ as a character, that He is just as perfect, exhibits just as great a spirit in little trials as in great ones.”

Horace Bushnell (1802–1876) American theologian

Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 59.

“The deepest feeling always shows itself in silence;
not in silence, but restraint.”

Marianne Moore (1887–1972) American poet and writer

"Silence"
The Poems of Marianne Moore (2003)

“When we recall Christmas past, we usually find that the simplest things - not the great occasions - give off the greatest glow of happiness.”

Bob Hope (1903–2003) American comedian, actor, singer and dancer

“In our university [of Virginia] you know there is no Professorship of Divinity. A handle has been made of this, to disseminate an idea that this is an institution, not merely of no religion, but against all religion. Occasion was taken at the last meeting of the Visitors, to bring forward an idea that might silence this calumny, which weighed on the minds of some honest friends to the institution.”

Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) 3rd President of the United States of America

Letter to Thomas Cooper (3 November 1822), published in The Works of Thomas Jefferson in Twelve Volumes http://oll.libertyfund.org/ToC/0054.php, Federal Edition, Paul Leicester Ford, ed., New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1904, Vol. 12 http://oll.libertyfund.org/Texts/Jefferson0136/Works/0054-12_Bk.pdf, p. 272
1820s