“My friends, judge me by the enemies I have made.”
Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945) 32nd President of the United States
Speech made on the campaign trail in Portland, Oregon (21 September 1932)
1930s
Jugez-moi, messieurs les jurés, mais si vous m'avez compris, en me jugeant jugez tous les malheureux dont la misère, alliée à la fierté naturelle, a fait des criminels, et dont la richesse, dont l'aisance même aurait fait des honnêtes gens!
Trial statement
“My friends, judge me by the enemies I have made.”
Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945) 32nd President of the United States
Speech made on the campaign trail in Portland, Oregon (21 September 1932)
1930s
Randall Jarrell (1914–1965) poet, critic, novelist, essayist
"The Taste of the Age," The Saturday Evening Post (1958-07-26) [p. 290]
Kipling, Auden & Co: Essays and Reviews 1935-1964 (1980)
Katherine Anne Porter (1890–1980) American journalist, essayist, short story writer, novelist, and political activist
The Never-Ending Wrong (1977)
Context: The trial of Jesus of Nazareth, the trial and rehabilitation of Joan of Arc, any one of the witchcraft trials in Salem during 1691, the Moscow trials of 1937 during which Stalin destroyed all of the founders of the 1924 Soviet Revolution, the Sacco-Vanzetti trial of 1920 through 1927 — there are many trials such as these in which the victim was already condemned to death before the trial took place, and it took place only to cover up the real meaning: the accused was to be put to death. These are trials in which the judge, the counsel, the jury, and the witnesses are the criminals, not the accused. For any believer in capital punishment, the fear of an honest mistake on the part of all concerned is cited as the main argument against the final terrible decision to carry out the death sentence. There is the frightful possibility in all such trials as these that the judgment has already been pronounced and the trial is just a mask for murder.
Julie Andrews (1935) British actress, singer, author, theatre director, and dancer
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel {February 2000)
Theodore Kaczynski (1942) American domestic terrorist, mathematician and anarchist
Letter to J. N.
The Road to Revolution (2008)
“I was married by a judge. I should have asked for a jury.”
Groucho Marx (1890–1977) American comedian
A. V. Dicey (1835–1922) British jurist and constitutional theorist
Introduction to the Study of the Law of the Constitution [Eighth Edition, 1915] (LibertyClassics, 1982), p. 116.