Sunday, March 09, 2008

Judging-christiansquoting.org.uk

I am grateful that I am not as judgmental as all those censorious, self-righteous people around me.

But the Lord said to Samuel, "Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart. 1 Samuel 16:7 NIV

The first to present his case seems right, till another comes forward and questions him. Proverbs 18:17.

We find it hard to apply the knowledge of ourselves to our judgment of others. The fact that we are never of one kind, that we never love without reservations and never hate with all our being cannot prevent us from seeing others as wholly black or white. Eric Hoffer

The jury has a right to judge both the law as well as the fact in controversy. -- John Jay

Whoever ... is overrun with suspicion, and detects artifice and stratagem in every proposal, must either have learned by experience or observation the wickedness of mankind, and been taught to avoid fraud by having often suffered or seen treachery; or he must derive his judgment from the consciousness of his own disposition, and impute to others the same inclinations which he feels predominant in himself.- Samuel Johnson: Rambler #79

God Himself, sir, does not propose to judge a man until his life is over. Why should you and I? ----Samuel Johnson (attributed)

It helps to have a friend in court when one is constantly sentencing oneself to death - Erica Jong

In judging others a man laboureth in vain; he often erreth, and easily falleth into sin; but in judging and examining himself he always laboureth to good purpose. Thomas a Kempis (1380-1471), Of the Imitation of Christ

Who are you to judge? is the standard response, and I quote Captain James T. Kirk when asked the same question by Kodos the Executioner: who do I have to be? -- James Lileks, http://www.lileks.com/bleats/archive/03/0803/080703.html

In our world where it seems we are taught to judge everything all around and about us and we spend so much of our time doing just that, it might be wise to ask if we can judge anything. To judge anything with any degree of clarity and accuracy we would need all the information past, present and future and how it will affect all concerned to make a perfect judgment. Since no one has that skill, ability or information, you might agree, it may be unwise to judge. This idea may be hard to accept, but when you look back over your life and the judgments you made, ask yourself. How many of your judgments, when you made them, were you perfectly sure they were correct, would you want to change now with the benefit of 20/20 hindsight? Since every judgment is only an opinion based on the limited information at hand, filtered through one's personal value system, it might be safe to assume no two people will judge anything exactly the same. Even concepts of right and wrong, good or bad, good or bad morals and ethics are only opinions, for what may be good in one case may be a disaster in another. Sidney Madwed

A judge is a law student who marks his own examination papers.-- H. L. Mencken

I will not judge a person to be spiritually dead whom I have judged formerly to have had spiritual life, though I see him at present in a swoon as to all evidences of the spiritual life. And the reason why I will not judge him so is this -- because if you judge a person dead, you neglect him, you leave him; but if you judge him in a swoon, though never so dangerous, you use all means for the retrieving of his life. John Owen (1616-1683), Sermons

Every intellectual product must be judged from the point-of-view of the age and the people in which it was produced. Walter Pater (1839-1894)

You are young, my son, and, as the years go by, time will change and even reverse many of your present opinions. Refrain therefore awhile from the setting yourself up as a judge of the highest matters. --Plato (428-348 BC), _Laws_ #888

My soul, sit thou a patient looker-on;
Judge not the play before the play is done:
Her plot hath many changes; every day
Speaks a new scene; the last act crowns the play.
Francis Quarles (1592-1644)_Epigram_, "Respice Finem"

There is no art to find the mind's construction in the face.- William Shakespeare, 1564-1616,

True non-judgementalism is a logical impossibility. To forbid or exclude a value judgement is to assume, unconsciously, that the highest value is to have no values.-- John White

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