“Justice could be cruel, and crueler yet necessity, but mercy was the cruelest thing of all.”

Hart's Hope (1983)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Justice could be cruel, and crueler yet necessity, but mercy was the cruelest thing of all." by Orson Scott Card?

Orson Scott Card586

American science fiction novelist 1951

Related quotes

“Mercy from the Father and the Mother, mercy from the Sister and the Brother, Mercy from the Bastard, five times mercy, High Ones, we beseech you.… Mercy, High Ones. Not justice, please, not justice. We would all be fools to pray for justice.”

Lois McMaster Bujold (1949) Science Fiction and fantasy author from the USA

World of the Five Gods series, The Curse of Chalion (2000)

“Cruel necessity.”

Oliver Cromwell (1599–1658) English military and political leader

Reported remarks over the body of Charles I after his execution (January 1649), as quoted in Oliver Cromwell : A History (1895) by Samuel Harden Church, p. 321

“All the greatest things are simple, and many can be expressed in a single word: Freedom; Justice; Honour; Duty; Mercy; Hope.”

Winston S. Churchill (1874–1965) Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

United Europe Meeting, Albert Hall, London (May 14, 1947). Cited in Churchill by Himself, ed. Langworth, PublicAffairs (2008), p. 26 ISBN 1586486381
Post-war years (1945–1955)