Edward Gibbon Quotes

Again, it may be said, that to love justice and equality the people need no great effort of virtue; it is sufficient that they love themselves.

In a civilized society, all crimes are likely to be sins, but most sins are not and ought not to be treated as crimes.

Justice doesn't only mean that the people who commit crime are punished. It also means that we can never give up seeking the truth.

International affairs will be placed on a better footing when it is understood that there is no way of punishing a people for the crimes of its rulers.

Here's a little tip for you. If you don't like being called a murderer, don't kill people.

Shall ignorance of good and ill Dare to direct the eternal will? Seek virtue, and of that possest, To Providence resign the rest.

It makes you feel very virtuous when you forgive people, doesn't it?

What the great learning teaches, is to illustrate illustrious virtue; to renovate the people; and to rest in the highest excellence.

I hear you reproach, "But delay was best, For their end was a crime." Oh, a crime will do As well, I reply, to serve for a test As a virtue golden through and through, Sufficient to vindicate itself And prove its worth at a moment's view! . . . . . . Let a man contend to the uttermost For his life's set prize, be it what it will! The counter our lovers staked was lost As surely as if it were lawful coin; And the sin I impute to each frustrate ghost Is-the unlit lamp and the ungirt loin, Though the end in sight was a vice, I say.

It's the same in real life: Notorious murderers get off scot-free and live happily all their lives, while good people die - sometimes the very best people. That's the way of the world.

What moralist can deny that well-bred and vicious people are much more agreeable than their virtuous counterparts? Having crimes to atone for, they provisionally solicit indulgence by showing leniency toward the defects of their judges. Thus they pass for excellent folk.

FORGIVE The People That Hurt You. God Will Pay You Back With Double The Joy...Double The Victory.

One of my younger homies, he went to jail, and some people came to me and were like, "Bail him out," and I said no. Why would I bail him out? He's going to prison. Let him sit and get some time served. You want to be crazy, but you don't want to go to jail. You want to shoot people, but you don't want to kill people. That's such a misleading thing.

Most people go through their whole lives without killing anybody. False argument.

To be silent when we are impelled to utter words injurious to God or to our neighbour, is an act of virtue; but, to be silent in confessing our sins, is the ruin of the soul.

Holiness is not the luxury of a few people, but a simple duty for you and me.

Evil prevails when good people do nothing.

But [your crime] will be there, one hundred times denied, always there, dragging itself behind you. Then you will finally know that you have committed your life with one throw of the die, once and for all, and there is nothing you can do but tug our crime along until your death. Such is the law, just and unjust, of repentance. Then we will see what will become of your young pride.

I have been an accomplice to the murders of untold numbers of human beings. I am admitting this only because I have made a deal with God. Spare me, I said, and I will try to stop others from committing the same crimes I did.

If pimps and thieves everywhere were always punished, honest people would all believe themselves always to be innocent.

We won with the military. We won with highly educated, pretty well educated and poorly educated. But we won with everything, tall people, short people, fat people, skinny people just won.

It’s important that someone celebrate our existence," she objected amiably. "People are the only mirror we have to see ourselves in. The domain of all meaning. All virtue, all evil, are contained only in people. There is none in the universe at large. Solitary confinement is a punishment in every human culture.

We know that virtue does not matter to history, and that crimes remain unpunished; but that every error had its consequences and venges itself unto the seventh generation.

There are people who are at fault for one or another problem. These people are very avaricious and self-serving. They're not doing it just to do it; they're doing it for the money. That money, they keep here. When you say, "We're going to find these people, these guilty people, the ones who are not only breaking laws but are also hurting their own fellow country people," and you say, "We're going to punish them, specifically, that's a step in the right direction."