Seneca the Younger on Justice
← All quotes by Seneca the Younger
18 quotes
Prosperous and successful crime goes by the name of virtue; good men obey the bad, might is right and fear oppresses law.
Fortune is less severe against those of lesser degree, and God strikes what is weak with less power.
If you judge, investigate, if you reign, command.
For I do not distinguish by the eye, but by the mind, which is the proper judge of the man.
We have lost morals, justice, honor, piety and faith, and that sense of shame which, once lost, can never be restored.
The time that precedes punishment is the severest part of it.
An avenging God closely follows the haughty.
There is no greater punishment of wickedness than that it is dissatisfied with itself and its deeds.
He who decides a case without hearing the other side, though he decide justly, cannot be considered just.
The guilt of enforced crimes lies on those who impose them.
He who does not prevent a crime when he can, encourages it.
One crime has to be concealed by another.
While crime is punished it yet increases.
Successful crime is dignified with the name of virtue; the good become the slaves of the impious; might makes right; fear silences the power of the law.
It is the act of the indolent not to know what he may lawfully do. It is praiseworthy to do what is becoming, and not merely what is lawful.
No crime has been without a precedent.
The severest punishment a man can receive who has injured another, is to have committed the injury; and no man is more severely punished than he who is subject to the whip of his own repentance.
He, who has committed a fault, is to be corrected both by advice and by force, kindly and harshly, and to be made better for himself as well as for another, not without chastisement, but without passion.