Judgment

Conscience and law.

Judgment generally refers to the considered evaluation of evidence in the formation of making a decision. It has has many distinctive uses in various contexts, some in general psychology, others in law, and others in religion.

CONTENT: A-D , E-H , I-L , M-P , Q-T , U-Z , External links

Quotes

A - D

• On you, my lord, with anxious fear I wait,
  And from your judgment must expect my fate.
  • Joseph Addison, A Poem to His Majesty, line 21 in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 411-12.

• Judges ought to be more learned than witty, more reverend than plausible, and more advised than confident. Above all things, integrity is their portion and proper virtue.
  • Francis Bacon, Essays (1825), Of Judicature

• Cruel and cold is the judgment of man,
  Cruel as winter, and cold as the snow;
  But by-and-by will the deed and the plan
  Be judged by the motive that lieth below.
  • Lewis J. Bates, By-and-By in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 411-12.

• The cold neutrality of an impartial judge.
  • Edmund Burke, Preface to Brissot's Address, Volume V, p. 67 in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 411-12.

• Meanwhile "Black sheep, black sheep!" we cry,
  Safe in the inner fold;
  And maybe they hear, and wonder why,
  And marvel, out in the cold.
  • Richard Burton, Black Sheep in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 411-12.

• My friend, judge not me,
  Thou seest I judge not thee;
  Betwixt the stirrop and the ground,
  Mercy I askt, mercy I found.
  • Camden, Remaines Concerning Britaine (1637), p. 392. Quoted by Dr. Hill on epitaph to a man killed by a fall from his horse; In Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 411-12.

• Woe to him, * * * who has no court of appeal against the world's judgment.
  • Thomas Carlyle, Essays, Mirabeau; in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 411-12.

• Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting.
  • Daniel. V. 27; in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 411-12.

• Most people suspend their judgment till somebody else has expressed his own and then they repeat it. Common parlance alludes to this weakness in the frequently heard phrase: PEOPLE DO NOT THINK.
  • Ernest Dimnet (1928) The Art of Thinking p. 139

E - H

• We judge others according to results; how else?—not knowing the process by which results are arrived at.
  • George Eliot, The Mill on the Floss (1860), Book VII, Chapter II; in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 411-12.

• A justice with grave justices shall sit;
  He praise their wisdom, they admire his wit.
  • John Gay, The Birth of the Squire, l. 77; in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 411-12.

• In other men we faults can spy,
  And blame the mote that dims their eye;
  Each little speck and blemish find,
  To our own stronger errors blind.
  • John Gay, The Turkey and the Ant, Part I, line 1; in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 411-12.

• So comes a reck'ning when the banquet's o'er,
  The dreadful reck'ning, and men smile no more.
  • John Gay, The What D'ye Call It, Act II, scene 9; in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 411-12.

• I know of no way of judging the future but by the past.
  • Patrick Henry, Speech in the Virginia Convention (1775)

• Art thou a magistrate? then be severe;
  If studious, copy fair what time hath blurr'd,
  Redeem truth from his jaws: if soldier,
  Chase brave employments with a naked sword
  Throughout the world. Fool not, for all may have
  If they dare try, a glorious life, or grave.

• • George Herbert, The Church Porch, Stanza 15; in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 411-12.
• If we will measure other people's corn in our own bushel, let us first take it to the Divine standard, and have it sealed.
  • Josiah Gilbert Holland, reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 357

• Male verum examinat omnis Corruptus judex.
  • A corrupt judge does not carefully search for the truth.
  • Horace, Satires, Book II. 2. 8; in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 411-12.

• Demens
  Judicio vulgi, sanus fortasse tuo.
  • Mad in the judgment of the mob, sane, perhaps, in yours.
  • Horace, Satires, Book I. 6. 97; in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 411-12.

I - L

• So wise, so grave, of so perplex'd a tongue,
  And loud withal, that would not wag, nor scarce
  Lie still without a fee.
  • Ben Jonson, Volpone, Act I, scene 1; in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 411-12.

• Sir, as a man advances in life, he gets what is better than admiration, — judgement, to estimate things at their true value.
  • Samuel Johnson, reported in James Boswell, The Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), p. 485

• Verso pollice.
  • With thumb turned.
  • Juvenal, Satires, III. 36. "Vertere" or "convertere pollicem" was the sign of condemnation; "premere" or "comprimere pollicem" (to press or press down the thumb) signified popular favour. To press down both thumbs (utroque pollice compresso) signified a desire to caress one who had fought well. See Horace, Epigram I. 18. 66. Prudentius, Ado. Sym. 1098, gives it "Converso pollice".; in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 411-12.

• Quid tam dextro pede concipis ut te conatus non pœniteat votique peracti?
  • What is there that you enter upon so favorably as not to repent of the undertaking and the accomplishment of your wish?
  • Juvenal, Satires, X. 5; in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 411-12.

• Suspending moral judgment is not the immorality of the novel; it is its morality. The morality that stands against the ineradicable human habit of judging instantly, ceaselessly, and everyone; of judging before, and in the absence of, understanding. From the view­point of the novel’s wisdom, that fervid readiness to judge is the most detestable stupidity, the most pernicious evil.
  • Milan Kundera, in Testaments Betrayed (1995), p. 7

• Le devoir des juges est de rendre justice, leur métier est de la différer; quelques uns savent leur devoir, et font leur métier.
  • A judge's duty is to grant justice, but his practice is to delay it: even those judges who know their duty adhere to the general practice.
  • Jean de La Bruyère, Les Caractères; in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 411-12.

• Half as sober as a judge.
  • Charles Lamb, Letter to Mr. and Mrs. Moxon (August, 1833); in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 411-12.

• On est quelquefois un sot avec de l'esprit; mais on ne l'est jamais avec du jugement.
  • We sometimes see a fool possessed of talent, but never of judgment.
  • François de La Rochefoucauld, Maximes, 456; in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 411-12.

• He that judges without informing himself to the utmost that he is capable, cannot acquit himself of judging amiss.
  • John Locke, Human Understanding, Book II, Chapter XXI; in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 411-12.

• We judge ourselves by what we feel capable of doing, while others judge us by what we have already done.
  • Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Kavanagh: A Tale (1849), Chapter I

M - P

• Bisogna che i giudici siano assai, perché pochi sempre fanno a modo de' pochi.
  • There should be many judges, for few will always do the will of few.
  • Niccolò Machiavelli, Dei Discorsi, I, 7; in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 411-12.

• Give your decisions, never your reasons; your decisions may be right, your reasons are sure to be wrong.
  • Lord Mansfield's Advice; in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 411-12.

• My suit has nothing to do with the assault, or battery, or poisoning, but is about three goats, which, I complain, have been stolen by my neighbor. This the judge desires to have proved to him; but you, with swelling words and extravagant gestures, dilate on the Battle of Cannæ, the Mithridatic war, and the perjuries of the insensate Carthaginians, the Syllæ, the Marii, and the Mucii. It is time, Postumus, to say something about my three goats.
  • Martial, Epigrams (c. 80-104 AD), Book VI, Epigram 19; in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 411-12.

• I pleaded your cause, Sextus, having agreed to do so for two thousand sesterces. How is it that you have sent me only a thousand? "You said nothing," you tell me; "and this cause was lost through you." You ought to give me so much the more, Sextus, as I had to blush for you.
  • Martial, Epigrams (c. 80-104 AD), Book VIII, Epigram 18; in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 411-12.

• When thou attended gloriously from heaven,
  Shalt in the sky appear, and from thee send
  Thy summoning archangels to proclaim
  Thy dread tribunal.
  • John Milton, Paradise Lost (1667; 1674), Book III, line 323

• There written all
  Black as the damning drops that fall
  From the denouncing Angel's pen,
  Ere Mercy weeps them out again.
  • Thomas Moore, Lalla Rookh (1817), Paradise and the Peri, Stanza 28

• Judicis officium est ut res ita tempora rerum Quærere.
  • The judge's duty is to inquire about the time, as well as the facts.
  • Ovid, Tristium, I. 1. 37; in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 411-12.

• 'Tis with our judgments as our watches, none
  Go just alike, yet each believes his own.
  • Alexander Pope, An Essay on Criticism (1709), line 9

• The hungry judges soon the sentence sign,
  And wretches hang that jurymen may dine.
  • Alexander Pope, The Rape of the Lock (1712), Canto III, line 21

• You cannot avoid making judgements but you can become more conscious of the way in which you make them. This is critically important because once we judge someone or something we tend to stop thinking about them or it.
  • Neil Postman, Teaching as a Subversive Activity (1969)

• Since twelve honest men have decided the cause,
  And were judges of fact, tho' not judges of laws.
  • William Pulteney, 1st Earl of Bath, The Honest Jury, in The Craftsman, Volume 5. 337. Refers to Sir Philip Yorke's unsuccessful prosecution of The Craftsman (1792). Quoted by Lord Mansfield.; in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 411-12.

Q - T

• Denn aller Ausgang ist ein Gottesurtheil.
  • For every event is a judgment of God.
  • Friedrich Schiller, Wallenstein's Tod, I. 7. 32; in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 411-12.

• Commonly we say a Judgment falls upon a Man for something in him we cannot abide.
  • John Selden, Table Talk, Judgments; in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 411-12.

• Si judicas, cognosce: si regnas, jube.
  • If you judge, investigate; if you reign, command.
  • Seneca, Medea, CXCIV; in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 411-12.

• For I do not distinguish by the eye, but by the mind, which is the proper judge of the man.
  • Seneca, On a Happy Life, Chapter I.; in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 411-12.

• We shall be judged, not by what we might have been, but what we have been.
  • Sewell, Passing Thoughts on Religion, Sympathy in Gladness; in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 411-12.

• He that of greatest works is finisher
  Oft does them by the weakest minister:
  So holy writ in babes hath judgment shown,
  When judges have been babes.
  • William Shakespeare, All's Well That Ends Well (1600s), Act II, scene 1, line 139

• I see men's judgments are
  A parcel of their fortunes; and things outward
  Do draw the inward quality after them,
  To suffer all alike.
  • William Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra (1600s), Act III, scene 13, line 31

• Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice;
  Take each man's censure, but reserve thy judgment.
  • William Shakespeare, Hamlet (1600-02), Act I, scene 3, line 68

• Forbear to judge, for we are sinners all.
  • William Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part II (c. 1590-91), Act III, scene 3, line 31

• What we oft do best,
  By sick interpreters, once weak ones, is
  Not ours, or not allow'd; what worst, as oft,
  Hitting a grosser quality, is cried up
  For our best act.
  • William Shakespeare, Henry VIII (1613), Act I, scene 2, line 81

• Therefore I say again,
  I utterly abhor, yea from my soul
  Refuse you for my judge; whom, yet once more,
  I hold my most malicious foe, and think not
  At all a friend to truth.
  • William Shakespeare, Henry VIII (1613), Act II, scene 4, line 80

• Heaven is above all yet; there sits a judge,
  That no king can corrupt.
  • William Shakespeare, Henry VIII (1613), Act III, scene 1, line 100

• O judgment! thou art fled to brutish beasts,
  And men have lost their reason!
  • William Shakespeare, Julius Cæsar (1599), Act III, scene 2, line 109

• The jury, passing on the prisoner's life,
  May in the sworn twelve have a thief or two
  Guiltier than him they try.
  • William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure (1603), Act II, scene 1, line 19

• How would you be,
  If He, which is the top of judgment, should
  But judge you as you are?
  • William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure (1603), Act II, scene 2, line 76

• Thieves for their robbery have authority
  When judges steal themselves.
  • William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure (1603), Act II, scene 2, line 176

• He who the sword of heaven will bear
  Should be as holy as severe;
  Pattern in himself to know,
  Grace to stand, and virtue go;
  More nor less to others paying
  Than by self-offenses weighing.
  Shame to him, whose cruel striking
  Kills for faults of his own liking!
  • William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure (1603), Act III, scene 2, line 275

• To offend, and judge, are distinct offices
  And of opposed natures.
  • William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice (late 1590s), Act II, scene 9, line 61

• I stand for judgment: answer: shall I have it?
  • William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice (late 1590s), Act IV, scene 1, line 108

• A Daniel come to judgment! yea, a Daniel.
  • William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice (late 1590s), Act IV, scene 1, line 223

• It doth appear you are a worthy judge;
  You know the law; your exposition
  Hath been most sound.
  • William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice (late 1590s), Act IV, scene 1, line 236

• I charge you by the law,
  Whereof you are a well deserving pillar,
  Proceed to judgment.
  • William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice (late 1590s), Act IV, scene 1, line 238

• The urging of that word, judgment, hath bred a kind of remorse in me.
  • William Shakespeare, Richard III (c. 1591), Act I, scene 4, line 109

• What is my offence?
  Where are the evidence that do accuse me?
  What lawful quest have given their verdict up
  Unto the frowning judge?
  • William Shakespeare, Richard III (c. 1591), Act I, scene 4, line 187

• Four things belong to a judge: to hear courteously, to answer wisely, to consider soberly, and to decide impartially.
  • Socrates; in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 411-12.

• The Holy Spirit would lead us to think much upon our own sins. It is a dangerous thing for us to dwell upon the imperfections of others.
  • Ichabod Spencer, reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 357

• Would that our harsh judgments could be restrained, our impatience checked, our selfishness broken down, our passions controlled, our waste of time and life in worthless or unworthy objects corrected, by the thought that there is One in whose hands we are, who cares for us with a parent's love, who will judge us hereafter without the slightest tinge of human infirmity, the All-Merciful and the All-Just.
  • Dean Stanley, reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 357

• Though our works
  Find righteous or unrighteous judgment, this
  At least is ours, to make them righteous.
  • Algernon Charles Swinburne, Marino Faliero (1885), Act III, scene 1

• But as when an authentic watch is shown,
  Each man winds up and rectifies his own,
  So in our very judgments.
  • Sir John Suckling, Aglaura Epilogue; in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 411-12.

• Judex damnatur cum nocens absolvitur.
  • The judge is condemned when the guilty is acquitted.
  • Syrus, Maxims; in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 411-12.

• Initia magistratuum nostrorum meliora, ferme finis inclinat.
  • Our magistrates discharge their duties best at the beginning; and fall off toward the end.
  • Tacitus, Annales (AD 117), XV. 31; in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 411-12.

• Where blind and naked Ignorance
  Delivers brawling judgments, unashamed,
  On all things all day long.
  • Alfred Tennyson, Idyls of the King, Merlin and Vivien, line 662; in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 411-12.

• Ita comparatam esse naturam omnium, aliena ut melius videant et dijudicent, quam sua.
  • The nature of all men is so formed that they see and discriminate in the affairs of others, much better than in their own.
  • Terence, Heauton timoroumenos, III. 1. 94; in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 411-12.

V - Z

• One cool judgment is worth a thousand hasty councils. The thing to do is to supply light and not heat. At any rate, if it is heat it ought to be white heat and not sputter, because sputtering heat is apt to spread the fire. There ought, if there is any heat at all, to be that warmth of the heart which makes every man thrust aside his own personal feeling, his own personal interest, and take thought of the welfare and benefit of others.
  • Woodrow Wilson, speech at Pittsburgh (Jan. 29, 1916)