Mishnah 7 - Chapter 4 - Pirkei Avot

Rabbi yishma'el beno omer. Hachosech atzmo min haddin, porek mimmennu eivah vegazel ushevu'at shav. Vehaggas libbo vehora'ah, shoteh rasha vegas ruach.

Rabbi Ishmael his son said: he who refrains himself from judgment, rids himself of enmity, robbery and false swearing; But he whose heart is presumptuous in giving a judicial decision, is foolish, wicked and arrogant.

R. Yishmael, his son, says: One (a judge) who avoids judging [when there is (present) one greater than he, or when he persuades the litigants to compromise] removes himself from hatred [(for one who leaves beth-din liable hates the judge, saying in his heart "He did not try to find things in my favor")], and from theft [Perhaps he incriminated an innocent person and, in effect, robbed him], and from a vain oath, [which he may have wrongly imposed on one not liable for an oath. Or perhaps the tanna calls a false oath a vain oath, as when he (the defendant) [vainly] swore that he did not borrow, when he really did.] And one who is "haughty" in judgment, [judging without adequate review or deliberation] is a fool, an evildoer, and a man of arrogance.