Careful Words

judge (n.)

judge (v.)

Now night descending, the proud scene was o'er,

But lived in Settle's numbers one day more.

Alexander Pope (1688-1744): The Dunciad. Book i. Line 89.

The solemn fop; significant and budge;

A fool with judges, amongst fools a judge.

William Cowper (1731-1800): Conversation. Line 299.

An upright judge, a learned judge!

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): The Merchant of Venice. Act iv. Sc. 1.

  No one should be judge in his own cause.

Publius Syrus (42 b c): Maxim 545.

  It is not permitted to the most equitable of men to be a judge in his own cause.

Blaise Pascal (1623-1662): Thoughts. Chap. iv. 1.

  The cold neutrality of an impartial judge.

Edmund Burke (1729-1797): Preface to Brissot's Address. Vol. v. p. 67.

  Judge not according to the appearance.

New Testament: John vii. 24.

  There is an ancient saying, famous among men, that thou shouldst not judge fully of a man's life before he dieth, whether it should be called blest or wretched.

Sophocles (496-406 b c): Trachiniae, 1.

  What a chimera, then, is man! what a novelty, what a monster, what a chaos, what a subject of contradiction, what a prodigy! A judge of all things, feeble worm of the earth, depositary of the truth, cloaca of uncertainty and error, the glory and the shame of the universe!

Blaise Pascal (1623-1662): Thoughts. Chap. x. 1.

  O Jephthah, judge of Israel, what a treasure hadst thou!

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Hamlet. Act ii. Sc. 2.

Have you not heard these many years ago

Jeptha was judge of Israel?

He had one only daughter and no mo,

The which he loved passing well;

And as by lott,

God wot,

It so came to pass,

As God's will was.

Thomas Percy (1728-1811): Jepthah, Judge of Israel.

  I do not distinguish by the eye, but by the mind, which is the proper judge of the man.

Seneca (8 b c-65 a d): On a Happy Life. 2. (L' Estrange's Abstract, Chap. i.)

Chaos of thought and passion, all confused;

Still by himself abused or disabused;

Created half to rise, and half to fall;

Great lord of all things, yet a prey to all;

Sole judge of truth, in endless error hurled,—

The glory, jest, and riddle of the world.

Alexander Pope (1688-1744): Essay on Man. Epistle ii. Line 13.

I am as sober as a judge.

Henry Fielding (1707-1754): Don Quixote in England. Act iii. Sc. 14.

Why, all the souls that were, were forfeit once;

And He that might the vantage best have took

Found out the remedy. How would you be,

If He, which is the top of judgment, should

But judge you as you are?

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Measure for Measure. Act ii. Sc. 2.