Table-Talk (1857)
Context: The Laws of Nature are just, but terrible. There is no weak mercy in them. Cause and consequence are inseparable and inevitable. The elements have no forbearance. The fire burns, the water drowns, the air consumes, the earth buries. And perhaps it would be well for our race if the punishment of crimes against the Laws of Man were as inevitable as the punishment of crimes against the Laws of Nature, — were Man as unerring in his judgments as Nature.
The Ocean of Theosophy by William Q. Judge (1893), Chapter 11, Karma
“In a just cause the weak o'ercome the strong.”
Œdipus Coloneus, 880.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)
“Human judges can show mercy. But against the laws of nature, there is no appeal.”
"Sir Arthur's Quotations" http://www.clarkefoundation.org/about-sir-arthur/sir-arthurs-quotations/, The Arthur C. Clarke Foundation.
Disputed
“People who have no weaknesses are terrible; there is no way of taking advantage of them.”
Pt. II, ch. 4
The Crime of Sylvestre Bonnard (1881)
“[N]othing is too terrible to be true if it is consistent with the laws of nature [...].”
" The Pinprick Argument https://www.utilitarianism.com/pinprick-argument.html", BLTC Research, 2005
The Essays Or Counsels, Civil And Moral, Of Francis Ld. Verulam Viscount St. Albans (1625), Of Judicature
[Baqir Sharīf al-Qurashi, The life of Imam Muhammad al-Jawad, Wonderful Maxims and Arts, 2005]
"On Political Morality" (5 February 1794)
“As I said, it was inevitable, and I don’t let laws of nature upset me.”
Source: The Mote in God's Eye (1974), Chapter 47 “Homeward Bound” (p. 445)
