Justifies

Famous quotes containing the word justifies:

    The world, the wise world, that never is wrong itself, judges always by events. And if he should use me ill, then I shall be blamed for trusting him: if well, O then I did right, to be sure!—But how would my censurers act in my case, before the event justifies or condemns the action, is the question.
    Samuel Richardson (1689–1761)

    Men always sell strawberries, women, blackberries, your all- knowing Creole friend says. ‘Why?’ you ask. ‘Ah, it has always been that way.’ When you get to know Creoles better, you realize that the phrase ‘It has always been that way’ justifies everything.
    —For the City of New Orleans, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)

    Nations without a past are contradictions in terms. What makes a nation is the past, what justifies one nation against others is the past, and historians are the people who produce it.
    Eric J. Hobsbawm (b. 1917)