Give to Your servant an understanding heart to judge Your people, that I may discern between good and evil. ~ Book of Kings 3:9
Woe to him, who has no court of appeal against the world's judgment. ~ Thomas Carlyle

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.

A

  • 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.
  • But let judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream.
    • Amos 5:24.
  • Behind the unwillingness to judge lurks the suspicion that no one is a free agent, and hence the doubt that anyone is responsible or could be expected to answer for what he has done. The moment moral issues are raised, even in passing, he who raises them will be confronted with this frightful lack of self-confidence and hence of pride, and also with a kind of mock-modesty that in saying, Who am I to judge? actually means We're all alike, equally bad, and those who try, or pretend that they try, to remain halfway decent are either saints or hypocrites, and in either case should leave us alone.
    • Hannah Arendt, "Personal Responsibility Under Dictatorship," in Responsibility and Judgment (2003).

B

  • 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.
  • 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.
  • To pass judgment hurriedly
    doesn’t mean you’re a judge.
    The wise one, weighing both
    the right judgment & wrong,
    judges others impartially —
    unhurriedly, in line with the Dhamma,
    guarding the Dhamma,
    guarded by Dhamma,
    intelligent:
    he’s called a judge.
  • 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.

C

  • 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.
  • In the last analysis sound judgment will prevail.
    • Joseph Gurney Cannon, maxim quoted in a tribute to Cannon on his retirement, The Sun, Baltimore, Maryland (March 4, 1923); Congressional Record (March 4, 1923), vol. 64, p. 5714.

D

  • 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.
  • Make every private Sentinel, every Musquetier, both Judge, Jury, and Executioner.
    • Daniel Defoe, "Memoirs of the Church of Scotland" (1717)
  • 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.

E

  • 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.
  • People think that they have no right to judge a fact — all they have to do is to accept it. Thus from the moment that technics, the State, or production, are facts, we must worship them as facts, and we must try to adapt ourselves to them. This is the very heart of modern religion, the religion of the established fact, the religion on which depend the lesser religions of the dollar, race, or the proletariat.

G

  • 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.

H

  • I know of no way of judging the future but by the past.
  • 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.
  • Do not judge your fellow man until you have come into his situation.
  • 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.
  • Nature has but one judgment on wrong conduct—if you can call that a judgment which seemingly has no reference to conduct as such—the judgment of death.
    • Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., address at the dedication of the Northwestern University Law School Building, Chicago, Illinois (October 20, 1902); republished in Holmes' Collected Legal Papers (1937), p. 272.
  • 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

  • Woe to those who make unjust laws,
    to those who issue oppressive decrees,
    to deprive the poor of their rights
    and withhold justice from the oppressed of my people,
    making widows their prey
    and robbing the fatherless.
    What will you do on the day of reckoning,
    when disaster comes from afar?
    To whom will you run for help?
    Where will you leave your riches?

J

  • Besides, I try to judge things for myself; to judge wrong, I think, is more honourable than not to judge at all.
  • For the one who does not practice mercy will have his judgment without mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.
  • The firmness with which the people have withstood the late abuses of the press, the discernment they have manifested between truth and falsehood, show that they may safely be trusted to hear everything true and false, and to form a correct judgment between them.
    • Thomas Jefferson, letter to Judge John Tyler (June 28, 1804); in Andrew A. Lipscomb, ed., The Writings of Thomas Jefferson (1904), vol. 11, p. 33.
  • 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.

K

  • 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.

L

  • 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.
  • If we could first know where we are, and whither we are tending, we could then better judge what to do, and how to do it.
    • Abraham Lincoln, speech delivered at the close of the Republican state convention, which named him the candidate for the United States Senate, Springfield, Illinois (June 16, 1858); in Roy P. Basler, ed., The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln (1953) vol. 2, p. 461. This is the opening sentence of the "house divided" speech.
  • 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.

M

  • 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.
  • 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.

N

  • In judging ourselves, we cannot be too severe; in judging others, we cannot be too candid. We should judge ourselves by our motives, but others by their actions.
    • Reverend William Nevins, Select Remains of the Rev. William Nevins with a Memoir (1836), page 383, published by John S. Taylor, New York.

O

  • 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.

P

  • Each one of us is... called upon to give a judgment upon an immense variety of problems, crucial for our social existence. If that judgment confirms measures and conduct tending to the increased welfare of society, then it may be termed a moral, or, better, a social judgment. It follows, then, that to ensure a judgement's being moral, method and knowledge are essential to its formation. ...[T]he formation of a moral judgment—that is, one which the individual is reasonably certain will tend to social welfare—does not depend solely on the readiness to sacrifice individual gain or comfort, or on the impulse to act unselfishly: it depends in the first place on knowledge and method. The first demand of the state upon the individual is not for self-sacrifice but for self-development. ...[T]he man who gives a vote... in the choice of a representative, after forming a judgement based upon knowledge, is... acting socially, and is fulfilling a higher standard of citizenship.
  • Look, as sentient meat, however illusory our identities are, we craft those identities by making value judgments: everybody judges, all the time. Now, you got a problem with that... You're livin' wrong.
  • The hungry judges soon the sentence sign,
    And wretches hang that jurymen may dine.
  • 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.
  • 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.

R

  • You will remember that Christ said, "Judge not lest ye be judged." That principle I do not think you would find was popular in the law courts of Christian countries. I have known in my time quite a number of judges who were very earnest Christians, and none of them felt that they were acting contrary to Christian principles in what they did. Then Christ says, "Give to him that asketh of thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away." That is a very good principle... Then there is one other maxim of Christ which I think has a great deal in it, but I do not find that it is very popular among some of our Christian friends. He says, "If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that which thou hast, and give to the poor." That is a very excellent maxim, but, as I say, it is not much practised. All these, I think, are good maxims, although they are a little difficult to live up to. I do not profess to live up to them myself; but then, after all, it is not quite the same thing as for a Christian.

S

Open your mouth, judge righteously, and defend the rights of the poor and needy. ~ Proverbs 31:9
  • 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 the Younger, 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 the Younger, On a Happy Life, Chapter I.; in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 411-12.
  • We cannot be too gentle, too kind. Shun even to appear harsh in your treatment of each other. Joy, radiant joy, streams from the face of one who gives and kindles joy in the heart of one who receives. All condemnation is from the devil. Never condemn each other, not even those whom you catch committing an evil deed. We condemn others only because we shun knowing ourselves. When we gaze at our own failings, we see such a morass of filth that nothing in another can equal it. That is why we turn away, and make much of the faults of others. Keep away from the spilling of speech. Instead of condemning others, strive to reach inner peace. Keep silent, refrain from judgement. This will raise you above the deadly arrows of slander, insult, outrage, and will shield your glowing hearts against the evil that creeps around.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice;
    Take each man's censure, but reserve thy judgment.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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!
  • What is my offence?
    Where are the evidence that do accuse me?
    What lawful quest have given their verdict up
    Unto the frowning judge?
  • 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.
  • Open your mouth, judge righteously, and defend the rights of the poor and needy.
  • 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.
  • 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.

T

  • 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.

W

  • 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, address on preparedness, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (January 29, 1916); in Arthur S. Link, ed., The Papers of Woodrow Wilson (1981), vol. 36, p. 33.

See also

  1. ↑ Meadows, Mel (2010). A novel Uzzah. Lulu.com. p. 76. ISBN 9780557229918.
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