Cicero: “For it is not only generous occasionally to abate a little of one's rightful claims, but it is sometimes even…”

The first office of justice is to keep one man from doing harm to another, unless provoked by wrong; and the next is to lead men to use common possessions for the common interests, private property for their own.

And it is a great man's duty in troublous times to single out the guilty for punishment, to spare the many, and in every turn of fortune to hold to a true and honourable course.

Now, those who care for the interests of a part of the citizens and neglect another part, introduce into the civil service a dangerous element--dissension and party strife.

Thus apparent expediency is outweighed when placed in the balance against moral rectitude.