“I will not, I cannot justify it.”
1770s, Letter to Robert Pleasants (1773)
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Patrick Henry 43
attorney, planter, politician and Founding Father of the Un… 1736–1799Related quotes

Source: 1930s- 1950s, The Practice of Management (1954), p. 41

“The course to democratic transformation is not justified if we cannot defend our land.”
Source: "Azerbaijani Leader, Restored To Power, Imposes Emergency Rule" in The Washington Post https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:epcCRJyvH3AJ:https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1992/05/15/azerbaijani-leader-restored-to-power-imposes-emergency-rule/c4a5d291-a743-4227-90db-54e0f9739b80/+&cd=3&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us (15 May 1992)

Source: Economics Of The Welfare State (Fourth Edition), Chapter 3, Political Theory: Social Justice And The State, p. 49

Curtain - Poirot's Last Case (1975)
Context: I have no more now to say. I do not know, Hastings, if what I have done is justified or not justified. No — I do not know. I do not believe that a man should take the law into his own hands... But on the other hand, I am the law! As a young man in the Belgian police force I shot down a desperate criminal who sat on a roof and fired at people below. In a state of emergency martial law is proclaimed.

“I can tell the difference between senseless terror and justifiable rebellion.”
Source: Against a Scientific Justification of Animal Experiments, p. 340

Variant: But neither can you condemn nor justify and yet be extraordinarily alive as you walk on.
You can never invite the wind but you must leave the window open.
Source: Striking Thoughts (2000), p. 13
Source: Striking Thoughts: Bruce Lee's Wisdom for Daily Living
Context: You cannot force the Now. — But can you neither condemn nor justify and yet be extraordinarily alive as you walk on? You can never invite the wind, but you must leave the window open.

United States v. Robel (1967) - Findlaw file http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=US&vol=389&invol=258
Context: This concept of "national defense" cannot be deemed an end in itself, justifying any exercise of legislative power designed to promote such a goal. Implicit in the term "national defense" is the notion of defending those values and ideals which set this Nation apart. For almost two centuries, our country has taken singular pride in the democratic ideals enshrined in its Constitution, and the most cherished of those ideals have found expression in the First Amendment. It would indeed be ironic if, in the name of national defense, we would sanction the subversion of one of those liberties — the freedom of association — which make the defense of our nation worthwhile.