Literary notes about Clemency (AI summary)
In literature, clemency is portrayed as an embodiment of mercy and moderation—a quality that tempers the strictness of justice with a compassionate restraint. Writers often depict rulers and powerful figures who, while administering law and order, deliberately choose restraint over harsh punishment, thereby elevating their authority with a sense of benevolence ([1], [2], [3]). Clemency is also invoked as a strategic device, where its extension serves both as a marker of royal virtue and as a political tactic to secure loyalty or undermine potential dissent ([4], [5], [6]). Furthermore, in moral and philosophical contexts, clemency is celebrated as a dynamic power that counteracts cruelty by restraining anger, underscoring the idea that true strength lies in the capacity to forgive rather than to punish ([7], [8]).
- They administered justice in person; and the rigor of the one was tempered by the other's clemency.
— from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon - Both in his administration and his conduct towards the vanquished party in the civil war, he showed a wonderful moderation and clemency.
— from The Lives of the Twelve Caesars, Complete by Suetonius - In the cheerfulness of the king's countenance is life: and his clemency is like the latter rain.
— from The Bible, Douay-Rheims, Complete - " 51 But as the former part of his prediction was verified by the victory, so the latter was disappointed by the clemency of Probus.
— from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon - The reason for this clemency was that the Cardinal desired to win Rochefoucauld from the Queen's party.
— from Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims by François duc de La Rochefoucauld - “And this was all he said?” enquired Ivanhoe; “would not any one say that this Prince invites men to treason by his clemency?”
— from Ivanhoe: A Romance by Walter Scott - Explanation—To cruelty is opposed clemency, which is not a passive state of the mind, but a power whereby man restrains his anger and revenge.
— from Ethics by Benedictus de Spinoza - In reality, what is generosity, clemency, humanity, if not compassion , applied to the weak, to the guilty, or to the human race, as a whole?
— from The Basis of Morality by Arthur Schopenhauer
