
“One is either judge or accused. The judge sits, the accused stands. Live on your feet.”
Diary of an Unknown (1988)
#441
Vectors: Aphorisms and Ten Second Essays (2001)
“One is either judge or accused. The judge sits, the accused stands. Live on your feet.”
Diary of an Unknown (1988)
“The victor will always be the judge, and the vanquished the accused.”
Source: Nuremberg Diary (1947), p. 4 (1995 edition); also quoted in Nuremberg: A Personal Record of the Trial of the Major Nazi War Criminals in 1945—46 (1978) by A. Neave, p. 74; original German, as quoted in Der Nürnberger Prozess (1958) by Joe J. Heydecker and Johannes Leeb, p. 103
Fragment vii.
Golden Sayings of Epictetus, Fragments
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.
“His indivisibility judges their hedging and trimming. His honesty judges their watchfulness.”
"Political Correctness: Robert Bly and Philip Larkin" (1997)
Context: A life is one kind of biography and the letters are another kind of life, but the internal story, the true story is in the Collected Poems. The recent attempts by Motion and others to pass judgement on Larkin look awfully green and pale, compared with the self-examinations of the poetry. They think they judge him? No, he judges them. His indivisibility judges their hedging and trimming. His honesty judges their watchfulness.
“The hungry judges soon the sentence sign,
And wretches hang that jurymen may dine.”
Canto III, line 21.
The Rape of the Lock (1712, revised 1714 and 1717)