34 Quotes On Judgment

In our journey through life, we often find ourselves both giving and receiving judgment. These moments of evaluation, whether they come from self-reflection or the perceptions of others, shape our experiences and worldview. To navigate this complex human experience, we can turn to the wisdom of those who have eloquently penned their thoughts on judgment. In this curated collection of the top 34 quotes on judgment, you'll find perspectives that enlighten, challenge, and inspire—a perfect guide to help you ponder the art and impact of judgment in our daily lives.

1. “When the Day of Judgment dawns and people, great and small, come marching in to receive their heavenly rewards, the Almighty will gaze upon the mere bookworms and say to Peter, “Look, these need no reward. We have nothing to give them. They have loved reading.” - Virginia Woolf

2. “I shall tell you a great secret my friend. Do not wait for the last judgment, it takes place every day.” - Albert Camus

3. “It doesn't matter what you do. In the end, you are going to be judged, and all the times that you're not at your most dignified are the ones that will be recalled in all their vivid, heartbreaking detail. And then of course these things will be distorted and exaggerated and replayed over and over, until eventually they turn into the essence of you: your cartoon.” - Dan Chaon

4. “We should not judge people by their peak of excellence; but by the distance they have traveled from the point where they started.” - Henry Ward Beecher

5. “If Passion drives, let Reason hold the Reins.” - Benjamin Franklin

6. “Good judgment comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgment.” - Rita Mae Brown

7. “The work is at such a high level and is so well executed, it really is a matter of taste... [Source: Project Runway — but consider, applied to the theme of book reviews, it seems apropos!]” - Tim Gunn

8. “What! Would I be turned back from doing a thing that I had determined to do, and that I knew to be right, by the airs and interference of such a person, or any person I may say? No, I have no idea of being so easily persuaded. When I have made up my mind, I have made it.” - Jane Austen

9. “..... it would be interesting to find out what goes on in that moment when someone looks at you and draws all sorts of conclusions.” - Malcolm Gladwell

10. “We inhabit a world in which we tend to put labels on each other and expect that we will then march through life wearing them like permanent sandwich boards.” - Nick Webb

11. “You are constantly told in depression that your judgment is compromised, but a part of depression is that it touches cognition. That you are having a breakdown does not mean that your life isn't a mess. If there are issues you have successfully skirted or avoided for years, they come cropping back up and stare you full in the face, and one aspect of depression is a deep knowledge that the comforting doctors who assure you that your judgment is bad are wrong. You are in touch with the real terribleness of your life. You can accept rationally that later, after the medication sets in, you will be better able to deal with the terribleness, but you will not be free of it. When you are depressed, the past and future are absorbed entirely by the present moment, as in the world of a three-year-old. You cannot remember a time when you felt better, at least not clearly; and you certainly cannot imagine a future time when you will feel better.” - Andrew Solomon

12. “Chance is commonly viewed as a self-correcting process in which a deviation in one direction induces a deviation in the opposite direction to restore the equilibrium. In fact, deviations are not "corrected" as a chance process unfolds, they are merely diluted.” - Amos Tversky

13. “Reason sits firm and holds the reins, and she will not let the feelings burst away and hurry her to wild chasms. The passions may rage furiously, like true heathens, as they are; and the desires may imagine all sorts of vain things: but judgment shall still have the last word in every argument, and the casting vote in every decision. Strong wind, earthquake-shock, and fire may pass by: but I shall follow the guiding of that still small voice which interprets the dictates of conscience.” - Charlotte Brontë

14. “Judgment is easy: it is black and white, as brutal as a gavel strike.” - Luanne Rice

15. “You cannot be fair to others without first being fair to yourself.Know that a well-honed sense of justice is a measure of personal experience, and all experience is a measure of self.Know that the highest expression of justice is mercy.Thus, as the supreme judge in your own court, you must have compassion for yourself.Otherwise, cede your gavel.” - Vera Nazarian

16. “A strong life force can be seen in physical vitality, courage, competent judgment, self-mastery, sexual vigor, and the realization of each person’s unique talents and purpose in life. To maintain a powerful life force, forget yourself, forget about living and dying, and bring your full attention into this moment.” - H.E. Davey

17. “By choosing healthy over skinny you are choosing self-love over self-judgment. You are beautiful!” - Steve Maraboli

18. “It has always seemed that a fear of judgment is the mark of guilt and the burden of insecurity.” - Criss Jami

19. “Sur quelque préférence une estime se fonde,Et c'est n'estimer rien qu'estimer tout le monde.” - Molière

20. “With a hint of good judgment, to fear nothing, not failure or suffering or even death, indicates that you value life the most. You live to the extreme; you push limits; you spend your time building legacies. Those do not die.” - Criss Jami

21. “In an extroverted society, the difference between an introvert and an extrovert is that an introvert is often unconsciously deemed guilty until proven innocent.” - Criss Jami

22. “I think that I am too warm to negatively judge individuals, yet I am cold enough to negatively judge humanity.” - Criss Jami

23. “Good judgment comes from bad experience. Unfortunately, most of that comes from bad judgment.- Tara Daniels -” - Jill Shalvis

24. “In the end there is nothing to be done but to state clearly what has been done, without shame or regret, and say: Here I am, and this is what I am. Now deal with me as you see fit. That is your right. Mine is to stand by the act, and pay the price.You do what you must do, and pay for it. So in the end all things are simple.” - Ellis Peters

25. “... if one hasn't been through, as our people mercifully did not go through, the horrors of an occupation by a foreign power, you have no right to pronounce upon what a country does, which has been through all that.” - Anthony Eden

26. “When one is young, one venerates and despises without that art of nuances which constitutes the best gain of life, and it is only fair that one has to pay dearly for having assaulted men and things in this manner with Yes and No. Everything is arranged so that the worst of tastes, the taste for the unconditional, should be cruelly fooled and abused until a man learns to put a little art into his feelings and rather to risk trying even what is artificial — as the real artists of life do.” - Friedrich Nietzsche

27. “I thought of Shelley in the hospital, how she said sometimes sadness only looked like anger and judgment. Maybe fear did too.” - Holly Cupala

28. “…It's as if they actually think that what other people think of them somehow doesn't matter. I mean, I know we're all supposed to believe that, but obviously, none of us actually do. And nor should we, because it does! It does matter! And the people who genuinely believe it doesn't tend to be the very people who ought to care most what other people think of them, because what the other people are thinking is, 'No, actually, I don't think the Chinese are "up to something,"' or, 'You should use mouthwash,' or, 'Your mania for the collective socialization of agriculture will surely cause the deaths of millions,' or, 'Forty cats is too many cats.” - David Mitchell

29. “Discernment is the son of good judgment and the father of self-control. When mixed with an already clear conscience, the ability to read the true motives of a critic keeps one's conscience both clear and at ease.” - Criss Jami

30. “If we're to be judged by our parents and grandparents, then we all may as well impale ourselves upon jagged bits of rock.” - Kristin Cashore

31. “The moment a student gives up his right of personal judgment, he is in for accepting all the humbugs of life” - Lin Yutang

32. “Anyway, what does "wrong" mean? Who decides what's wrong and what's right?” - Hiroshi Ishizaki

33. “One reason we rush so quickly to the vulgar satisfactions of judgment, and love to revel in our righteous outrage, is that it spares us from the impotent pain of empathy, and the harder, messier work of understanding.” - Tim Kreider

34. “If my sinfulness appears to me to be in any way smaller or less detestable in comparison with the sins of others, I am still not recognizing my sinfulness at all. ... How can I possibly serve another person in unfeigned humility if I seriously regard his sinfulness as worse than my own?” - Dietrich Bonhoeffer