Justice & Law Quote by William Henry Moody

A politician savoring applause while pretending not to hear it is one of the oldest tricks in the public-life playbook, and Moody executes it with the tidy restraint of a man auditioning for higher office. The first sentence is pure credentialing: he “received very high compliments” not from peers or party allies, but from the Chief Justice and “other of the Judges.” That choice of audience matters. Judicial praise carries an aura of impartiality, a stamp of competence that politics can’t easily counterfeit. It’s less “people liked my speech” than “the guardians of the law validated me.”

Then comes the pivot: “What they said I do not care to repeat.” On its face, it’s modesty. In practice, it’s a classic rhetorical feint that lets him repeat the fact of admiration without risking the vulgarity of quoting it. By withholding the content, he invites the reader to imagine compliments even more glowing than anything he could safely print. The silence becomes a megaphone.

Context sharpens the intent. Moody, a prominent American politician who later became Attorney General and a Supreme Court Justice, moved in circles where reputation was currency and decorum was a weapon. This is the language of a man documenting his ascent: not bragging outright, but building a record of elite approval. The subtext is ambition wearing a polite mask - and it works because it flatters both the author and the institutions he wants to be seen as belonging to.