Quotes About Justification

Sometimes I wish I had a terrible childhood, so that at least I'd have an excuse.

La historia ha justificado a la Iglesia en la creencia de que las masas de la humanidad desean una religión pródiga en milagros, misterio y mitos.

If actions only could be made the ground of criminal prosecutions, and words were always allowed to pass free, sedition would be divested of every semblance of justification.

What sets our species apart is not just what men will do to other men, but how tirelessly they justify it.

It matters not to an empiricist from what quarter an hypothesis may come to him: he may have acquired it by fair means or by foul; passion may have whispered or accident suggested it; but if the total drift of thinking continues to confirm it, that is what he means by its being true.

The ambiguity in the goal is allowing rationalization to creep in.

Darlin'," he says, draining his coffee cup, "I can come up with solutions all day long and you can come up with reasons. Either you take control or all you've got left is reasons.

We let rip with idealism and grand words, but it's nothing but rationalizations of our own egoistic behavior. Not only do we lie to others; we also lie to ourselves. Each one of us lives inside a house of mirrors -- our own instinctive self-righteousness distorts the way we view reality so that we can justify our actions to ourselves. And there's no way we can escape.

L'héritage par les enfants ne nécessite, lui, aucune justification. Toute autre dévolution est de surcroît regardée comme "lésant" les enfants, ce qui confirme que ceux-ci sont les héritiers "normaux".

If she had truly been sent by God, she would not wear men's clothes in contravention of God's law and the Church's teaching. The nature of her supposed mission was no excuse for this abomination, since no 'greater' good could ever justify sin – and in any case women were forbidden to fight, just as they were forbidden to preach, to teach, to administer the sacraments, and all other duties that belonged to men.

I suppose it's easier to kill people if you can pretend to yourself that they're not really people at all.

Maybe she was not really like that. It's just that I would prefer you to think that what happened to her was justified.

Useful professions are clearly meant for the public, but those whose utility is more dubious can only justify their existence by assuming that the public is meant for them.

Philosophy claims to show the true nature of this world, and in a sense the claim is justified. Philosophy unmasks religion as the general theory of this inverted world, as its encyclopaedic guide, its popular logic, its "spiritual point d'honneur," and its moral justification. Philosophy liberates man from nonphilosophy, i.e., from fantastic ideas uncritically accepted. Consequently philosophy is the spiritual quintessence of its epoch.

There can be no doubt that so far as the upbuilding of a strong and efficient State was concerned, this policy was entirely successful. To justify it on abstract grounds is impossible, and even its political necessity was, to say the least, doubtful. Whether rightly or wrongly, however, this system of harsh repression was the one adopted; and it is to be feared that its authors were little concerned with the need of justification.

Necessary policemen, firemen, street cleaners, health officers, judges, legislators and executives perform productive services as important as those of anyone in private industry. They make it possible for private industry to function in an atmosphere of law, order, freedom and peace. But their justification consists in the utility of their services. It does not consist in the "purchasing power" they possess by virtue of being on the public payroll.

A sin is two sins when it is defended.

Hold yourself responsible for a higher standard than anybody else expects of you, never excuse yourself.

Prejudice assumes the garb of reason, but the cheat is too thin.

To sin is a human business, but to justify sins is a devilish business.

But all these hints at foreseeing what actually did happen on the French as well as on the Russian side are only conspicuous now because the event has justified them. If the event had not come to pass, these hints would have been forgotten, as thousands and millions of suggestions and supposition are now forgotten that were current at the period, but have been shown by time to be unfounded and so have been consigned to oblivion.

That debauchery was not a good thing in a married man did not even occur to him [Tsar Nicholas I], and he would have been very surprised if anyone had condemned him for it. But, even though he was convinced that he had acted as he ought, he was left with some sort of unpleasant aftertaste, and, to stifle that feeling, he began thinking about something that always soothed him: about what a great man he was.

Why did millions of people kill one another when it has been known since the world began that it is physically and morally bad to do so? Because it was such an inevitable necessity that in doing it men fulfilled the elemental zoological law which bees fulfill when they kill one another in autumn, and which causes male animals to destroy one another. One can give no other reply to that terrible question.

One need only admit that public tranquillity is in danger and any action finds a justification.