It is a fine thing, when you are slandered, not to hear it. And it is a better thing to never reply to it. I have always tried to possess one deaf ear and one blind eye; and I believe that the deaf ear is the better ear and the blind eye by far the more useful of the two. Do not remember the injury that is done to you; try to forget it and pass it over. Do not go about the world determined to grasp every red-hot iron that any fool holds out before you. Let it alone! It will be for your own good and for God’s glory to be very patient under the slander of the wicked.

Leave your character with God; it is safe there. Men may throw mud at it, but it will never stick long on a true believer; it shall soon come off and you shall be the more glorious for men’s slander.

All the dirt that falls upon a good man will brush off when it is dry; but let him wait until it is dry and not dirty his hands with wet mud. “Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils.”

There may be an evil spirit in yonder bottle, but nobody will get drunk on it if you keep the cork in! So there may be evil thoughts in your hearts, but they will not injure other people if you do not, as it were, draw the cork by uttering them! It is always well to think twice before you speak once.

“For what glory is it, if when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye shall take it patiently? but if, when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is accepted with God. For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example that ye should follow his steps: who did no sin, neither was guilt found in his mouth: Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously,” (1st Peter 2:20-23)

Adapted