Never promise more than you can perform.
Publilius SyrusRead
The judge is found guilty when a criminal is acquitted.
Interpretation
The quote suggests that when justice fails, those responsible for upholding it share in the guilt.
This quote from Publilius Syrus highlights the idea that the judicial system is not just about punishing the guilty, but also about ensuring that justice is served. When a criminal is acquitted, it reflects a failure in the system, implicating the judge in the outcome, as their responsibility is to ensure justice is delivered fairly. This encapsulates the ethical burden that judges bear and emphasizes the importance of accountability within the legal framework.
In practice
A lawyer could reference this quote during a trial to emphasize the importance of fair judgment.
Never promise more than you can perform.
Pain forces even the innocent to lie.
In a heated argument we are apt to lose sight of the truth.
Admonish your friends privately, but praise them openly.
What a tragedy is help where it harms what it supports!
The miser is as much in want of what he has as of what he has not.
Power ought to serve as a check to power.
Should the States reject this excellent Constitution, the probability is, an opportunity will never again offer to cancel another in peacethe next will be drawn in blood.
Cast your whole vote, not a piece of paper merely, but your whole influence. A minority is powerless when it conforms to a majority; but is irresistable when it clogs by its whole weight. If the alternative is to keep all just men in prison, or give up war and slavery, the State will not hesitate which to choose.
You know Balbec so well - do you have friends in the area?' I have friends wherever there are companies of trees, wounded but not vanquished, which huddle together with touching obstinacy to implore an inclement and pitiless sky.' That is not what I meant,' interrupted my father, as obstinate as the trees and as pitiless as the sky.
I am a great believer in the simplicity of things and as you probably know I am inclined to hang on to broad & simple ideas like grim death until evidence is too strong for my tenacity.
A psychoneurosis must be understood, ultimately, as the suffering of a soul which has not discovered its meaning.
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