Quotes About Judgment

Virginity is in the lies of the beholder.

The faults of others are easily perceived, but those of oneself are difficult to perceive; a man winnows his neighbour?s faults like chaff, but his own fault he hides as a cheat hides the false dice from the gamester.

Nobody needs to be described as silly: let your analysis show that he is.

Understand a man by his deeds and words; the impressions of others lead to false judgment.

[Upon being asked whether he would rather be Achilles or Homer:] Which would you rather be—a victor in the Olympic games, or the announcer of the victor?

Intelligence is a moral category.

Die Mannsleute sind doch immer noch schlimmer als man denkt.

Der Eindruck, den Effi empfing, war überall derselbe: mittelmäßige Menschen, von meist zweifelhafter Liebenswürdigkeit, die, während sie vorgaben, über Bismarck und die Kronprinzessin zu sprechen, eigentlich nur Effis Toilette musterten, die von einigen als zu prätentios für eine so jugendliche Dame, von andern als zu wenig dezent für eine Dame von gesellschaftlicher Stellung befunden wurde.

P]erhaps in this case, as often, the most courageous resolution might have been at the same time the most prudent

Women see through each other, but they rarely look into themselves

In Anglo-Saxon countries the prostitutes look as if they purveyed, along with sin, the attendant pains of hell.

The basest person is capable of perceiving the weaknesses of the greatest, the most stupid, the errors in the thought of the most intelligent.

Did you hear about the fellow who returned a shirt to the clothing store and told the salesman, "After I got home, I realized that I don't like this shirt. I just liked the song that was playing in the store when I bought it.

To base one's rejection of what exists--and hence one's prescription for a better world--upon the petty frustrations of one's youth, as surely many middle-class radicals have done, is profoundly egotistical. Unless consciously rejected, this impulse leads to a tendency throughout life to judge the rightness or wrongness of policies by one's personal emotional response to them, as if emotion were an infallible guide.

It is the prerogative of the unthinkingly prosperous to sneer at the bourgeois virtues.

man who thinks he is guarding himself against prejudices [by which he means inherited moral standards and taboos] by resisting the authority of others, leaves open every avenue to singularity, vanity, self-conceit, obstinacy, and many other vices, all tending to warp the judgment.

A curious reversal in the locus of moral concern has taken place: people feel responsible for everything except for what they do.

The choice for Gillray, as for all persons of good sense, was never between perfection and hell on earth, but always between better and worse.

In the light of the world's attitude toward woman and her duties, the nature of Carrie's mental state deserves consideration. Actions such as hers are measured by an arbitrary scale. Society possesses a conventional standard whereby it judges all things. All men should be good, all women virtuous. Wherefore, villain, hast thou failed?

Carrie felt this as a personal reproof. She read "Dora Thorne," or had a great deal in the past. It seemed only fair to her, but she supposed that people thought it very fine. Now this clear- eyed, fine-headed youth, who looked something like a student to her, made fun of it. It was poor to him, not worth reading. She looked down, and for the first time felt the pain of not understanding.

Outward judgment often fails, inward judgment never.

Nine tenths of wisdom consists in being wise in time.

With soul of flame and temper of steel we must act as our coolest judgment bids us.

Nine-tenths of wisdom is being wise in time.