Severity is allowable where gentleness has no effect.
La violence est juste où la douceur est vaine.
Original text (French)
More quotes by Pierre Corneille
As great as kings may be, they are what we are: they can err like other men.
Oh, how sweet it is to pity the fate of an enemy, when we have no longer anything to fear from him!
He who is insulted has a right to be outraged, as unpunished audacity only increases!
Attribution
Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Pierre Corneille (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.