There is something mean in human nature that prefers to think evil, that gives a willing ear and a ready welcome to calumny, a sort of jealousy of goodness and greatness and things of good report.

Le Gallienne laments a recurring moral weakness: people often find it easier—or more gratifying—to believe the worst about others than to credit virtue. The “ready welcome to calumny” suggests how gossip and slander spread socially, not merely through malice but through a kind of appetite for scandal. By calling it a “jealousy of goodness and greatness,” he frames cynicism as defensive: admiration can feel like a rebuke to one’s own shortcomings, so disparagement becomes a way to level distinctions. The quote thus critiques both individual character and collective culture, warning that reputations and public discourse are easily corrupted when suspicion is treated as sophistication.