Quotes to inspire and reflect

Kindness, n. A brief preface to ten volumes of exaction.

The drying up a single tear has more / Of honest fame, than shedding seas of gore.

The unfortunate need people who will be kind to them; the prosperous need people to be kind to.

No humane being, past the thoughtless age of boyhood, will wantonly murder any creature which holds its life by the same tenure that he does.

It is long and hard and painful to create life: it is short and easy to steal the life others have made.

He who bears the brand of Cain shall rule the earth.

Must we kill to prevent there being any wicked? This is to make both parties wicked instead of one.

It hath the primal eldest curse upon t, A brother’s murder!

The overfaithful sword returns the user / His heart’s desire at price of his heart’s blood.

Whom man kills, him God restoreth to life.

Every premeditated murder is always governed by a preparatory ceremonial and is always followed by a propitiatory ceremonial. The meaning of both eludes the murderer’s mind.

What can you do by killing? Nothing. You kill one dog, the master buys another—that’s all there is to it.

There are times when even justice brings harm with it.

If they are just, they are better than clever.

A man who deals in fairness with his own, / he can make manifest justice in the state.

Justice is impartiality. Only strangers are impartial.

Everywhere there is one principle of justice, which is the interest of the stronger.

There is a justice, but we do not always see it. Discreet, smiling, it is there, at one side, a little behind injustice, which makes a big noise.

Even the laws of justice themselves cannot subsist without mixture of injustice.

We see neither justice nor injustice which does not change its nature with change in climate. Three degrees of latitude reverse all jurisprudence; a meridian decides the truth.

For one crime which is expiated in prison ten thousand are committed thoughtlessly by those who condemn.

Justice is the very last thing of all wherewith the universe concerns itself. It is equilibrium that absorbs its attention.

If you study the history and records of the world you must admit that the source of justice was the fear of injustice.

Rigid justice is the greatest injustice.

Keep alive the light of justice, / And much that men say in blame will pass you by.

Justice will not condemn even the Devil himself wrongfully.

Many have justice in their hearts, but slowly it is let fly, for it comes not without council to the bow.

There is a difference between justice and consideration in one’s relations to one’s fellow men. It is the function of justice not to do wrong to one’s fellow men; of considerateness, not to wound their feelings.

Men, generally going with the stream, seldom judge for themselves, and purity of taste is almost as rare as talent.

Somehow, our sense of justice never turns in its sleep till long after the sense of injustice in others has been thoroughly aroused.

It is one thing to lack a heart and another to possess eyes and a just imagination.

Reason wishes that the judgment it gives be just; anger wishes that the judgment it has given seem to be just.

We praise or blame as one or the other affords more opportunity for exhibiting our power of judgement.

We easily enough confess in others an advantage of courage, strength, experience, activity, and beauty; but an advantage in judgment we yield to none.

The judgment is an utensil proper for all subjects, and will have an oar in everything.

He that judges without informing himself to the utmost that he is capable, cannot acquit himself of judging amiss.

Familiarity confounds all traits of distinction: interest and prejudice take away the power of judging.

In order to judge properly, one must get away somewhat from what one is judging, after having loved it.

Rightness of judgment is bitterness to the heart.

In judgement be ye not too confident, / Even as a man who will appraise his corn / When standing in a field, ere it is ripe.

Nothing, it appears to me, is of greater value in a man than the power of judgment; and the man who has it may be compared to a chest filled with books, for he is the son of nature and the father of art.

For all right judgment of any man or thing it is useful, nay, essential, to see his good qualities before pronouncing on his bad.

I do not judge men by anything they can do. Their greatest deed is the impression they make on me.

Do not judge, and you will never be mistaken.

Our natural egoism leads us to judge people by their relations to ourselves. We want them to be certain things to us, and for us that is what they are; because the rest of them is no good to us, we ignore it.

When we come to judge others it is not by ourselves as we really are that we judge them, but by an image that we have formed of ourselves from which we have left out everything that offends our vanity or would discredit us in the eyes of the world.

Every man is entitled to be valued by his best moment.

The worthy administrators of justice are like a cat set to take care of a cheese, lest it should be gnawed by the mice. One bite of the cat does more damage to the cheese than twenty mice can do.