#censure

No weakness of the human mind has more frequently incurred animadversion, than the negligence with which men overlook their own faults, however flagrant, and the easiness with which they pardon them, however frequently repeated. ↗

— Samuel Johnson

#character-flaws #criticism #double-standards #faults #men

It follows that the one thing we should not do to the men and women of past time, and particularly if they ghost through to us as larger than life, is to take them out of their historical contexts. To do so is to run the risk of turning them into monsters, whom we can denounce for our (frequently political) motives—an insidious game, because we are condemning in their make-up that which is likely to belong to a whole social world, the world that helped to fashion them and that is deviously reflected or distorted in them. Censure of this sort is the work of petty moralists and propagandists, not historians (p. 5). ↗

— Lauro Martines

#context #historians #history #memory #moralists

It is folly for an eminent man to think of escaping censure, and a weakness to be affected with it. All the illustrious persons of antiquity, and indeed of every age in the world, have passed through this fiery persecution. ↗

— Joseph Addison

#age #antiquity #censure #eminent #escaping

I listen to them freely and with all the respect merited by their intelligence, their character, their knowledge, reserving always my incontestable right of criticism and censure. ↗

— Mikhail Bakunin

#censure #character #criticism #freely #i

We put together a one-sentence petition asking Congress to censure President Clinton and move on to other pressing issues. We sent it to under 100 friends and family, and within a week we had 100,000 people sign the petition. ↗

— Joan Blades

#censure #clinton #congress #family #friends

The readiest and surest way to get rid of censure, is to correct ourselves. ↗

— Demosthenes

#correct #get #ourselves #readiest #rid

Censure is a limp noodle across the wrist of the president. I think the way we vote on the articles will express the way we feel stronger than any censure vote. ↗

— Larry Craig

#any #articles #censure #express #feel

Censure acquits the raven, but pursues the dove. ↗

— Juvenal

#dove #pursues #raven

They were completely vague. They expressed everything and nothing. 'It is the Æolian harp of style,' thought Julien. 'Amid the most lofty thoughts about annihilation, death, the infinite, etc., I can see no reality save a shocking fear of ridicule. ↗

— Stendhal

#peer-pressure #prose #public-censure #death

You know, there were 29 Democratic votes for censure in the Senate. And if the Republicans had any sense, they would have censured him before the '98 midterm election, and they would have won the election. ↗

— Chris Matthews

#before #censure #censured #democratic #election