WIST Quotations

Hewart, Gordon -- Rex v Sussex Justices, ex parte McCarthy, [1924] 1 KB 256, [1923] EWHC KB 1, [1924] KB 256 (1923-11-09) [unanimous decision]

Dave — Sat, 30 Aug 2025 23:08:57 +0000

Nothing is to be done which creates even a suspicion that there has been an improper interference with the course of justice.

Gordon Hewart (1870-1943) British politician and jurist; Lord Chief Justice of England (1922-1940)
Rex v Sussex Justices, ex parte McCarthy, [1924] 1 KB 256, [1923] EWHC KB 1, [1924] KB 256 (1923-11-09) [unanimous decision]
(Source)

See also:

Addison, Joseph -- Essay (1711-06-26), The Spectator, No. 101

Dave — Mon, 30 Jun 2025 17:24:31 +0000

“Censure,” says a late ingenious author, “is the tax a man pays for being eminent.” It is a folly for an eminent man to think of escaping it, and a weakness to be affected with it. All the illustrious persons of antiquity, and indeed of every age in the world, have passed through this fiery persecution. There is no defense against reproach but obscurity; it is a kind of concomitant to greatness, as satires and invectives were an essential part of a Roman triumph.

Joseph Addison (1672-1719) English essayist, poet, statesman
Essay (1711-06-26), The Spectator, No. 101
(Source)

The quotation is from Jonathan Swift.

Swift, Jonathan -- Essay (1706-10), “Thoughts on Various Subjects”

Dave — Mon, 30 Jun 2025 17:19:55 +0000

Censure is the tax a man pays to the public for being eminent.

Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) English writer and churchman
Essay (1706-10), “Thoughts on Various Subjects”
(Source)

Franklin, Benjamin -- Poor Richard’s Almanack (1757)

Dave — Mon, 04 Apr 2016 13:29:00 +0000

Act uprightly, and despise Calumny; Dirt may stick to a Mud Wall, but not to polish’d Marble.

Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) American statesman, scientist, philosopher, aphorist
Poor Richard’s Almanack (1757)

La Rochefoucauld, Francois -- Réflexions ou sentences et maximes morales [Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims], ¶148 (1665-1678) [tr. Bund/Friswell (1871)]

Dave — Wed, 17 Jun 2015 12:32:14 +0000

Some reproaches praise; some praises reproach.

[Il y a des reproches qui louent, et des louanges qui médisent.]

François VI, duc de La Rochefoucauld (1613-1680) French epigrammatist, memoirist, noble
Réflexions ou sentences et maximes morales [Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims], ¶148 (1665-1678) [tr. Bund/Friswell (1871)]
(Source)

Present in the 1st ed. (1665). Also see Pope (1724).

(Source (French)). Other translations:

There are some who commend when they make account to reproach; and others whose praises are detractions.
[tr. Davies (1669), ¶166]

Some Censures are a Commendation, and some Commendations are no better than Scandal.
[tr. Stanhope (1694), ¶149]

There are reproaches that praise, and praises that reproach.
[pub. Donaldson (1783), ¶369; ed. Lepoittevin-Lacroix (1797), ¶142]

There are reproaches which give praise, and there are praises which reproach.
[ed. Carvill (1835), ¶323]

There are reproaches which praise, and praises which convey satire.
[ed. Gowens (1851), ¶151]

Censure often praises, and praise as frequently censures.
[tr. Heard (1917), ¶148]

Some reproaches are compliments, and some compliments slanders.
[tr. Stevens (1939), ¶148]

Hard words can be praise, and praises can be slander.
[tr. FitzGibbon (1957), ¶148]

There are reproaches that compliment, and compliments that disparage.
[tr. Kronenberger (1959), ¶148]

Some strictures can be compliments, and some compliments can be slanderous.
[tr. Tancock (1959), ¶148]

There are reproaches which praise, and praises which slander.
[tr. Whichello (2016) ¶148]

Sa'adi -- The Maxims of Sa’di, 7 [tr. Nakosteen (1977)]

Dave — Wed, 24 Sep 2014 13:06:33 +0000

I complained before a learned man that someone had accused me of corruption. He said, “Put him to shame by your good conduct.”

Sa'adi (1184-1283/1291?) Persian poet [a.k.a. Sa'di, Moslih Eddin Sa'adi, Mushrif-ud-Din Abdullah, Muslih-ud-Din Mushrif ibn Abdullah, Mosleh al-Din Saadi Shirazi, Shaikh Mosslehedin Saadi Shirazi]
The Maxims of Sa’di, 7 [tr. Nakosteen (1977)]

Johnson, Samuel -- Essay (1758-08-05), The Idler, No. 17

Dave — Fri, 20 Jun 2014 13:48:10 +0000

To be idle and to be poor have always been reproaches, and therefore every man endeavours with his utmost care to hide his poverty from others, and his idleness from himself.

Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) English writer, lexicographer, critic
Essay (1758-08-05), The Idler, No. 17
(Source)

Stevenson, Robert Louis -- Essay (1882-08), “Talk and Talkers (A Sequel),” Cornhill Magazine, Vol. 46

Dave — Tue, 27 Aug 2013 18:19:29 +0000

The correction of silence is what kills; when you know you have transgressed, and your friend says nothing and avoids your eye.

Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–1894) Scottish essayist, novelist, poet
Essay (1882-08), “Talk and Talkers (A Sequel),” Cornhill Magazine, Vol. 46
(Source)

Reprinted in Memories and Portraits, ch. 11 (1886).

Julius Caesar -- In Suetonius, Life of Caesar

Dave — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 16:39:13 +0000

My wife should be as much free from suspicion of a crime as she is from a crime itself.

[Meos tam suspicione quam crimine iudico carere oportere.]

Julius Caesar (100-44 BC) Roman general and statesman [Gaius Julius Caesar]
In Suetonius, Life of Caesar

Popularly, "Caesar’s wife must be above reproach" or "beyond reproach."

Caesar was called to be a witness against Clodius, who was charge with having defiled sacred rites and having an affair with Pompeia, Caesar's wife. Caesar said he had investigated and found out nothing to prove the Pompeia's fidelity. When asked why, then, he had divorced her, he gave this answer.

Alt. trans.: "I judge it necessary for my kin to be as free from suspicion as from the charge of wrongdoing."

Alt. trans.: "I wished my wife to be not so much as suspected." [in Plutarch, “Caesar,” Parallel Lives [tr. Dryden (1693)]].

Fuller, Thomas (1654) -- Gnomologia: Adages and Proverbs (compiler), # 4769 (1732)

Dave — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 12:09:25 +0000

The Sting of a Reproach is the Truth of it.

Thomas Fuller (1654-1734) English physician, preacher, aphorist, writer
Gnomologia: Adages and Proverbs (compiler), # 4769 (1732)
(Source)