Quotes & Sayings About Clemency

In general, indulgence for those we know is rarer than pity for those we know not. — Antoine Rivarol

A nation of slaves is always prepared to applaud the clemency of their master who, in the abuse of absolute power, does not proceed to the last extremes of injustice and oppression. — Edward Gibbon

The Americas became a symbol of clemency, of a second chance. — Neil Gaiman

From the moment of birth, the hunger of death feeds from an army of life. Day by day it creeps ever closer, a silent, merciless hunter, its endurance without end, its clemency non-existent. It chews on the mind, feeds on the body, digests the spirit, and regurgitates the soul. It is the single, inescapable, inevitable end of everyone, and — Thomas L. Scott

To punish the oppressors of humanity is clemency; to forgive them is cruelty. — Maximilien De Robespierre

The wise man will not pardon any crime that ought to be punished, but he will accomplish, in a nobler way, all that is sought in pardoning. He will spare some and watch over some, because of their youth, and others on account of their ignorance. His clemency will not fall short of justice, but will fulfill it perfectly. — Seneca The Younger

Clemency alone makes us equal to the gods. — Claudius Claudianus

I have always found that mercy bears richer fruits than strict justice. — Abraham Lincoln

Let us not listen to those who think we ought to be angry with our enemies, and who believe this to be great and manly. Nothing is so praiseworthy, nothing so clearly shows a great and noble soul, as clemency and readiness to forgive. — Marcus Tullius Cicero

PROLOGUE:
For us and for our tragedy,
Here stooping to your clemency,
We beg your hearing patiently.
HAMLET:
Is this a prologue or the posy of a ring? — William Shakespeare

Some goodness in this world is understood by the presence of the opposite. One will value light in the middle of darkness, and appreciate clemency by encountering savagery. Likewise, a meeting is properly indulged after having known the devastating account of goodbye. — Aishah Madadiy

Clemency, which we make a virtue of, proceeds sometimes from vanity, sometimes from indolence, often from fear, and almost always from a mixture of all three. — Francois De La Rochefoucauld

Because God knows, searches and clearly understands the minds, hearts, thoughts, and nature of all, his supreme kindness and clemency do not permit anyone at all who is not guilty of deliberate sin to suffer eternal punishments. — Pope Pius IX

There's no other life for me. Anyway, clemency wouldn't begin to repay your debt. I've given you a greater gift than you know."
"What gift?"
"You'll find out. In return, I expect you to keep it safe."
Kelsea turned back to the mirror. "Great God, tell me you didn't impregnate me while I slept."
The fetch threw back his head and roared with laughter. He placed a friendly hand on Kelsea's back, making her skin prickle. "Tear Queen, you'll either be dead within a week or you'll be the most fearsome ruler this kingdom has ever known. I see no middle ground. — Erika Johansen

[The] self overcoming of justice: one knows the beautiful name it has given itself
mercy ... — Friedrich Nietzsche

I believed in clemency, once," Captain Noble said, at last, "A long time ago, before I learned that the world is a hard place, and those who cannot bear what befalls them, no matter how ill, will be crushed in favor of those who will. There is no clemency, Ellis, only survival. — G.L. Tysk

Offer it up personally,then. Right now. I thought of how many people go to their graves unforgiven and unforgiving. I thought of how many people have had siblings or friends or children or lovers disappear from their lives before precious words of clemency or absolution could be passed along. How do the survivors of terminated relationships ever endure the pain of unfinished business? From that place of meditation, I found the answer-you can finish the business yourself, from within yourself. It's not only possible, it's essential. — Elizabeth Gilbert

The clemency of Princes is often but policy to win the affections of the people. — Francois De La Rochefoucauld

The Porto Ricans at Harvard University believe that the crime was a horrible one and it should be punished, but death penalty would add to, and not detract from, its horrors," the Harvard students wrote. One of the student signatures on the letter was by Pedro Albizu y Campos who would later become a Puerto Rican promoter of ideals for the island's independence from the United States. — Yasmin Tirado-Chiodini

A criminal trial is like a cultural in-flight test in which society projects its own history, fears, impatience, insolence, clemency, insecurities, dreams and nightmares upon facts ... What's inside is every fairy-tale monster, a brutal ogre, a bloodthirsty werewolf, an elegant vampire, a scheming devil, a bullying giant, a sneering troll, or maybe just an abusive stepfather. — Ron Franscell

What Bill Clinton did to us was cruel. The White House gave my attorneys indications that there was a good chance for my clemency to be granted. I had to prepare myself for being released because there was no sign that my petition would be denied. — Leonard Peltier

I was brought up to believe that everyone brave is forgiven, but in wartime courage is cheap and clemency out of season. Unless — Chris Cleave

I don't wanna die, I'm not gonna lie to you I admit that and I'm not asking for clemency, I'm not asking for forgiveness, I'm not asking for sympathy. I know they're gonna kill me sooner or later. You don't need to worry about that but there's a lot of crimes I can solve if the state can just see fit to make me live two or three years longer, I mean look, I know I'm not like other people, I know I can't feel sympathy for other people but I'm still human. — Ted Bundy

Tell me if you want me to change anything out - move some of the lace, mayhap, or use less of it. Poor Mrs. Sandeston. She said those words the way a man scheduled to be hanged this afternoon might talk about the weather on the morrow - wistfully, as if the thought of less lace were a luxury, something that would be experienced only by an extraordinary and unlikely act of executive clemency. — Courtney Milan

There was one awkward moment where a black man stood-up to ask a question and out of habit, Bush said 'Clemency denied.' — Bill Maher

The difference between the level of man's mind and that of the animal's equals to the Potential Energy; and the difference between the level of man's clemency and that of the animal's equals to the Kinetic Energy. Intellectuality is therefore a measure of Potential Energy, while Compassion is a measure of Kinetic Energy. After all, it is the heart which does the pumping and the synapse (aka, neuronal junction) which controls the transmission of the signals. — Ibrahim Ibrahim

You begged me for clemency once," he called over the dead reaches of the Fold, over the hungry shrieks of the horrors he had made. "Is this your idea of mercy?"
Another bullet hit the sand, only inches from us. Yes, I thought as the power rose up inside me, the mercy you taught me. — Leigh Bardugo

Children can be harsh judges when it comes to their parents, disinclined to grant clemency. — Jon Krakauer

Prayer is powerful! It fills the earth with mercy, it makes the Divine clemency pass from generation to generation; right along the course of the centuries wonderful works have been achieved through prayer. — Frances Xavier Cabrini

In social life, in the family government, in the Church, and in the State this is an acknowledged and invariable law. The debtor would be incapable of appreciating the clemency which cancelled the debt, so long as he denied either the existence or the justice of the claim. Unconscious of the obligation, he would be insensible to the grace that remitted it. — Octavius Winslow

I am loath to call clemency what was, rather, the exhaustion of cruelty. — Seneca.

Much more may a judge overweigh himself in cruelty than in clemency. — Philip Sidney

There are in you two qualities that God loves: clemency [al-hilm] and forbearance [al-ana, "nobleness," "tolerance"]. — Tariq Ramadan

To be good to the vile is to throw water into the sea. — Miguel De Cervantes

I hope that a move toward clemency with Judge Afiuni would be a step towards the importance of maintaining a properly functioning justice system. — Noam Chomsky

This is a boy's lot: anything he does, anything whatever, may afterward turn out to have been a crime - he never knows. And punishment and clemency are alike inexplicable. — Booth Tarkington

The Gauls were endowed with all the advantages of art and nature; but as they wanted courage to defend them, they were justly condemned to obey, and even to flatter, the victorious Barbarians, by whose clemency they held their precarious fortunes and their lives. — Edward Gibbon

I thought of how many people go to their graves unforgiven and unforgiving. I thought of how many people have had siblings or friends or children or lovers disappear from their lives before precious words of clemency or absolution could be passed along. How do the survivors of terminated relationships ever endure the pain of unfinished business? — Elizabeth Gilbert

God's forgiveness allows us to be honest with ourselves. We recognize our imperfections, admit our failures, and plead to God for clemency. — Jonathan Sacks

Clemency is also a revolutionary measure. — Camille Desmoulins

Clemency marvelled, trying a purple eyeshadow shot with gold sparkly bits on the back of her hand — Jill Mansell

It behooves us then to humble ourselves before the offended Power to confess our national sins and to pray for clemency and forgiveness ... — Abraham Lincoln

To be sure, following her arrest in 1975, she was unlikely to commit these kinds of crimes again. If the United States were a country that routinely forgave the trespasses of such people, there would be little remarkable about the mercy she received following her conviction. But the United States is not such a country; the prisons teem with convicts who were also led astray and who committed lesser crimes than Patricia. These unfortunate souls have no chance at even a single act of clemency, much less an unprecedented two. Rarely have the benefits of wealth, power, and renown been as clear as they were in the aftermath of Patricia's conviction. — Jeffrey Toobin

I say that every prince ought to desire to be considered clement and not cruel. Nevertheless he ought to take care not to misuse this clemency. — Niccolo Machiavelli

That same year the same Yakovlev explained on television that the decree rehabilitating all those who had been persecuted since 1917 was not at all a measure of clemency, as people in the Party were saying, but of repentance: "We are not pardoning them, we are asking their pardon. The goal of this decree is to rehabilitate us, who by remaining silent and looking away were accomplices to these crimes." In short, there was a sudden consensus that for the last seventy years the country had been in the hands of a gang of criminals. — Emmanuel Carrere

Two orders of mankind are the enemies of church and state; the king without clemency, and the holy man without learning. — Saadi

For that very reason we must be careful not to transform clemency into a more generalized rule of justification. That is why (among other reasons) "the thief on the cross" is such a bogus argument for faith-only salvation. Not only was water baptism physically impossible at that moment, but what we were witnessing in that incident was clemency, not justification. — F. LaGard Smith

Hell is nothing but a place we wish God has created for our enemies, we ourselves think that he will ultimately show some kind of clemency towards us — Bangambiki Habyarimana

Courage and clemency are equal virtues. — Delarivier Manley

The facts of life do not penetrate to the sphere in which our beliefs are cherished; they did not engender those beliefs, and they are powerless to destroy them; they can inflict on them continual blows of contradiction and disproof without weakening them; and an avalanche of miseries and maladies succeeding one another without interruption in the bosom of a family will not make it lose faith in either the clemency of its God or the capacity of its physician. — Marcel Proust

The seeds of freedom ... have now been scattered where despotism and tyranny ranked and ruled, will be watered by the enlivening dews of God's clemency, till the reapers abolitionists shall shout the harvest home. — Henry McNeal Turner

Clemency is the noblest trait which can reveal a true monarch to the world. — Pierre Corneille