"Envy doth merit like its shade pursue."
"The best bearing trees are the most beaten" (Italian).[597] "It
is only at the tree laden with fruit that people throw stones"
(French).[598] "Towers," say the Chinese, "are measured by their
shadows, and great men by their calumniators." An old French proverb
compares detraction to dogs that bark only at the full moon, and never
heed her in the quarter. "If the fool has a hump," say the Livonians,
"no one notices it; if the wise man has a pimple everybody talks about
it."
=Slander leaves a slur.=
"A blow of a fryingpan smuts, if it does not hurt" (Spanish).[599] The
Arabs say, "Take a bit of mud, dab it against the wall: if it does not
stick it will leave its mark;" and we have a similar proverb derived
from the Latin:[600]--
=Throw much dirt, and some will stick.=