Quotes About Judgment

House. "There are few things wholly evil, or wholly good. Almost everything, especially of governmental policy, is an inseparable compound of the two; so that our best judgment of the preponderance between them is continually demanded." That, Lincoln understood, was the moral work of politics: to make the good outweigh the bad.

have apparent confidence in all, real confidence in none, until from actual experience it is found that the individual is worthy of it—from this rule I have never departed.… When I have found men mere politicians, bending to the popular breeze and changing with it, for the self-popularity, I have ever shunned them, believing that they were unworthy of my confidence—but still treat them with hospitality and politeness.

The true rule, in determining to embrace, or reject anything, is not whether it have any evil in it; but whether it have more of evil, than of good.

The message of Martin Luther King, Jr.—that we should be judged on the content of our character, not on the color of our skin

We must remember always that accusation is not proof and that conviction depends upon evidence and due process of law.

You've just got to pick the man you think is best on the basis of his past history

In judging of others, let us always think the best, and employ the spirit of charity and candor. But in judging of ourselves, we ought to be exact and severe.

If anyone should change their behaviour, I thought, it ought to be those doing the shaming.

TV is just troubled people being booed these days.

we have to think about what level of mercilessness we feel comfortable with.

Do not go to that place of horror with elevated spirits, and gay hearts, for death is there! Justice and judgment are there! The power of government, displayed in its most awful form, is there . . . The person who can go and look on death merely to gratify an idle humor is destitute both of humanity and piety.

There are obviously a lot of very ill people out there. But there are also people in the middle, getting overlabeled, becoming nothing more than a big splurge of madness in the minds of the people who benefit from it.     Bob

It's about the terror, isn't it? The terror of what? The terror of being found out.

A tiny little baby!' says Tam. 'People look at me like I'm an animal. People who don't know me judge me. I always remember going up to visit someone in prison, and this woman was sitting there. She was looking at me, growling a bit, and I could imagine what she was thinking: There's a pedophile! Anyway, I later discovered about her character. And I'll tell you, it outweighed anything I'd ever done.' 'What had she done?' I ask. 'Shoplifting,' says Tam. There is silence.

maybe the American Psychiatric Association had a crazy desire to label all life a mental disorder. I

Bryna is convinced her children are bipolar, and I wasn't going to swoop into a stranger's home for an afternoon and tell them all they were normal.

We are defining the boundaries of normality by tearing apart the people outside of it.

deciding that instant judgment was a more heroic stance than curiosity. When

we tend to love nothing more than to declare other people insane.

The word forever had been coming up a lot during my two years among the publicly shamed. Jonah and Justine and people like them were being told, 'No. There is no door. There is no way back in. We don't offer any forgiveness.' But we know that people are complicated and have a mixture of flaws and talents and sins. So why do we pretend that we don't?

Look! We're saying. We're normal! This is the average! We're defining the boundaries of normality by tearing apart the people outside of it.

they saw how well behaved I was, and decided it meant I could only behave well in the environment of a psychiatric hospital and it proved I was mad." I

On the outside, Tony said, not wanting to spend time with your criminally insane neighbors would be a perfectly understandable position. But on the inside it demonstrates you're withdrawn and aloof and you have a grandiose sense of your own importance.

shameworthiness lies in the space between who we are and how we present ourselves to the world