A sound discretion is not so much indicated by never making a mistake as by never repeating it.
Christian Nestell Bovee

Arms in the hands of citizens may be used at individual discretion... in private self-defense.
John Adams

By placing discretion in the hands of an official to grant or deny a license, such a statute creates a threat of censorship that by its very existence chills free speech.
Harry A. Blackmun

Censorship always defeats it own purpose, for it creates in the end the kind of society that is incapable of exercising real discretion.
Henry Steele Commager

Depart from discretion when it interferes with duty.
Hannah More

Discretion is not the better part of biography.
Lytton Strachey

Discretion is nothing other than the sense of justice with respect to the sphere of the intimate contents of life.
Georg Simmel

Discretion is the perfection of reason, and a guide to us in all the duties of life.
Walter Scott

Discretion is the polite word for hypocrisy.
Christine Keeler

Discretion of speech is more than eloquence, and to speak agreeably to him with whom we deal is more than to speak in good words, or in good order.
Francis Bacon

Even private persons in due season, with discretion and temper, may reprove others, whom they observe to commit sin, or follow bad courses, out of charitable design, and with hope to reclaim them.
Isaac Barrow

Every man has a certain sphere of discretion which he has a right to expect shall not be infringed by his neighbours. This right flows from the very nature of man.
William Godwin

Every man has his dignity. I'm willing to forget mine, but at my own discretion and not when someone else tells me to.
Denis Diderot

Great is our admiration of the orator who speaks with fluency and discretion.
Marcus Tullius Cicero

I know of no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them but to inform their discretion.
Thomas Jefferson

It is the custom of the Roman Church which I unworthily serve with the help of God, to tolerate some things, to turn a blind eye to some, following the spirit of discretion rather than the rigid letter of the law.
Pope Gregory VII

Judgment is not upon all occasions required, but discretion always is.
Philip Stanhope

Most high courts in other nations do not have discretion, such as we enjoy, in selecting the cases that the high court reviews. Our court is virtually alone in the amount of discretion it has.
Sandra Day O'Connor

Notable talents are not necessarily connected with discretion.
Junius

Nothing is more dangerous than a friend without discretion; even a prudent enemy is preferable.
Jean de La Fontaine