To punish the oppressors of humanity is clemency; to forgive them is cruelty.
Clemency is the noblest trait which can reveal a true monarch to the world.
The Gauls were endowed with all the advantages of art and nature; but as they wanted courage to defend them, they were justly condemned to obey, and even to flatter, the victorious Barbarians, by whose clemency they held their precarious fortunes and their lives.
In general, indulgence for those we know is rarer than pity for those we know not.
Much more may a judge overweigh himself in cruelty than in clemency.
To be good to the vile is to throw water into the sea.