Verb
To pursue in a manner to injure, grieve, or afflict; to beset with cruelty or malignity; to harass; especially, to afflict, harass, punish, or put to death, for adherence to a particular religious creed or mode of worship.
To harass with importunity; to pursue with persistent solicitations; to annoy.
Source: Webster's dictionaryIt is a persistent evil to persecute a man who belongs to the grace of God. It is a calamity without remedy to hate the happy. Cyprian
It is funny that men who are supposed to be scientific cannot get themselves to realise the basic principle of physics, that action and reaction are equal and opposite, that when you persecute people you always rouse them to be strong and stronger. Gertrude Stein
Any body of men who believe in hell will persecute whenever they have the power. Joseph McCabe
Many countries persecute their own citizens and intern them in prisons or concentration camps. Oppression is becoming more and more a part of the systems. Alva Myrdal
To persecute the unfortunate is like throwing stones on one fallen into a well. Chinese Proverb
The way of this world is to praise dead saints and persecute living ones. Dominican Proverb