“It is not for human judgment to dive into the heart of man, to know whether his intentions are good or evil.”
Case of John Lambert and others (1793), 22 How. St. Tr. 1018.
Help us to complete the source, original and additional information
Lloyd Kenyon, 1st Baron Kenyon 92
British Baron 1732–1802Related quotes
“Human nature is evil, and goodness is caused by intentional activity.”
Quoted in: Fayek S. Hourani (2012) Daily Bread for Your Mind and Soul, p. 336.
Section 9 : Ethical Outlook
Founding Address (1876), Life and Destiny (1913)
“The human heart is a tangled wood wherein no man knows his way.”
Four Minute Essays Vol. 5 (1919), The Human Heart
“The plaintiff cannot dive into the secret recesses of his (the defendant's) heart.”
In Re Ward (1862), 31 Beav. 7.
“Most of the evil in this world is done by people with good intentions.”
“No evil can be excused because it is done with a good intention.”
Original: (la) Nullum malum bona intentione factum excusatur.
Variant: Variant translation: An evil action cannot be justified by reference to a good intention.
Source: On the Ten Commandments (c. 1273)
The Gulag Archipelago (1973).
Matterhorn: A Novel of the Vietnam War, Ch. 19 (2010).
Context: He thought of the jungle, already regrowing around him to cover the scars they had created. He thought of the tiger, killing to eat. Was that evil? And ants? They killed. No, the jungle wasn't evil. It was indifferent. So, too, was the world. Evil, then, must be the negation of something man had added to the world. Ultimately, it was caring about something that made the world liable to evil. Caring. And then the caring gets torn asunder. Everybody dies, but not everybody cares.It occurred to Mellas that he could create the possibility of good or evil through caring. He could nullify the indifferent world. But in so doing he opened himself up to the pain of watching it get blown away. His killing that day would not have been evil if the dead soldiers hadn't been loved by mothers, sisters, friends, wives. Mellas understood that in destroying the fabric that linked those people, he had participated in evil, but this evil had hurt him as well. He also understood that his participation in evil, was a result of being human. Being human was the best he could do. Without man there would be no evil. But there was also no good, nothing moral built over the world of fact. Humans were responsible for it all. He laughed at the cosmic joke, but he felt heartsick.
