In truth, we have delayed to pass sentence on the person of our lord the king, waiting, if perhaps he may, by God's grace, repent; but we will pass it ere long unless he does repent.
Interpretation
The quote expresses the hope for repentance before judgment is made on the king's actions.
In this quote, Thomas Becket emphasizes the importance of mercy and the potential for redemption. He illustrates a moment of moral deliberation, highlighting the tension between the obligation to judge and the hope that the person in question can reflect on their actions and seek forgiveness before consequences are imposed.
In practice
During a discussion on leadership, one might reference this quote to illustrate the balance between justice and mercy.
It is important that the Church of London, which has now lost its ruler, should receive for its new bishop a man whose personal merit, attainments in learning, and prudence in managing public business shall not be unworthy of the dignity of that see.
I am ready to die for my Lord, that in my blood the Church may obtain liberty and peace.
The more I loved the king, the more I opposed his injustice until his brow fell lowering upon me. He heaped calumny after calumny on my head, and I chose to be driven out rather than to subscribe.
Could I anticipate the enmity of those for whom I encountered such opposition? If they had been willing, I should have gained the victory. But the head faints when it is abandoned by the other members. If they had been wise they would have seen that in attacking me they were attacking their own privileges and serving princes to their own servitude.
Whosoever wisely examines the works of God will speedily discover what is next to be done.
The rashness of the persecutor hath overspread the rights of the persecuted so that punishment is awarded to him that has gained the victory, the inglorious triumphs, and the man who deserved bonds has carried off the prize.
As one whose husband and mother-in-law have died the victims of murder and assassination, I stand firmly and unequivocally opposed to the death penalty for those convicted of capital offenses. An evil deed is not redeemed by an evil deed of retaliation. Justice is never advanced in the taking of a human life. Morality is never upheld by a legalized murder.
An inflated consciousness is always egocentric and conscious of nothing but its own existence. It is incapable of learning from the past, incapable of understanding contemporary events, and incapable of drawing right conclusions about the future. It is hypnotized by itself and therefore cannot be argued with. It inevitably dooms itself to calamities that must strike it dead.
Most of us come to the church by a means the church does not allow.
The man who knows governments most completely is he who troubles himself least about a definition which shall give their essence. Enjoying an intimate acquaintance with all their particularities in turn, he would naturally regard an abstract conception in which these were unified as a thing more misleading than enlightening.
A policeman in plain clothes is a man; in his uniform he is ten. Clothes and title are the most potent thing, the most formidable influence, in the earth. They move the human race to willing and spontaneous respect for the judge, the general, the admiral, the bishop, the ambassador, the frivolous earl, the idiot duke, the sultan, the king, the emperor. No great title is efficient without clothes to support it.
We are still masters of our fate. We are still captains of our souls.
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