“Do you indeed speak righteousness?”

Last updated on: June 24, 2015 at 7:48 am by Annie Mueller

“Do you indeed speak righteousness?” 2015-06-24T07:48:13-05:00 Annie Mueller

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The Kingdom of God Is Within You

Leo Tolstoy

Besides, apologies for violence used against one’s neighbor in defense of another neighbor from greater violence are always untrustworthy, because when force is used against one who has not yet carried out his evil intent, I can never know which would be greater—the evil of my act of violence or of the act I want to prevent.

We kill the criminal that society may be rid of him, and we never know whether the criminal of to-day would not have been a changed man tomorrow, and whether our punishment of him is not useless cruelty. We shut up the dangerous—as we think—member of society, but the next day this man might cease to be dangerous and his imprisonment might be for nothing.

I see that a man I know to be a ruffian is pursuing a young girl. I have a gun in my hand—I kill the ruffian and save the girl. But the death or the wounding of the ruffian has positively taken place, while what would have happened if this had not been I cannot know. And what an immense mass of evil must result, and indeed does result, from allowing men to assume the right of anticipating what may happen. Ninety-nine per cent of the evil of the world is founded on this reasoning—from the Inquisition to dynamite bombs, and the executions or punishments of tens of thousands of political criminals.

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Arabian Wisdom

John Wortabet

Keep to the truth though it may harm thee, and keep away from falsehood though it may profit thee. A man can be perfect only when he speaks the truth and acts according to the truth.

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World English Bible: Psalm 58, 59

Do you indeed speak righteousness, silent ones?
Do you judge blamelessly, you sons of men?
No, in your heart you plot injustice.
You measure out the violence of your hands in the earth.

They return at evening, howling like dogs,
and prowl around the city.
Behold, they spew with their mouth.
Swords are in their lips,
“For,” they say, “who hears us?”
But you, Yahweh, laugh at them.
You scoff at all the nations.
Oh, my Strength, I watch for you,
for God is my high tower.

For the sin of their mouth, and the words of their lips,

let them be caught in their pride,

for the curses and lies which they utter.

But I will sing of your strength.

Yes, I will sing aloud of your loving kindness in the morning.

For you have been my high tower,

a refuge in the day of my distress.

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