#punishment

It is a considerable point in all good legislation to determine exactly the credibility of witnesses and the proofs of a crime. Every reasonable man, everyone, that is, whose ideas have a certain interconnection and whose feelings accord with those of other men, may be a witness. The true measure of his credibility is nothing other than his interest in telling or not telling the truth; for this reason it is frivolous to insist that women are too weak [to be good witnesses], childish to insist that civil death in a condemned man has the same effects as a real death, and meaningless to insist on the infamy of the infamous, when they have no interest in lying. ↗

— Cesare Beccaria

#crimes-and-punishments #justice #law #witnesses #death

Is it not true that in ancient times the worst punishment of all was not death, but banishment? ↗

— Jean Said Makdisi

#community #punishment #death

I forgive you, but only because you said 'please.'" Smartass, I thought. Then I groaned at the instant chorus of "Please!" mixed with cries for release from Vlad's prisoners. No wonder he got so sick of the word. "I'm only merciful to one person a day," he threw over his shoulder. "As the saying goes, today isn't your day and tomorrow doesn't look good, either. ↗

— Jeaniene Frost

#humor #leila #vlad-tepesh #forgiveness

Disgrace does not consist in the punishment, but in the crime. ↗

— Vittorio Alfieri

#crime #disgrace #does #punishment

The way the terrorist is trained to operate, especially the suicide terrorists, makes punishment and the threat of punishment far less valuable to those who would prevent the crime. ↗

— John Ashcroft

#especially #far #far less #less #makes

Death is not only an unusually severe punishment, unusual in its pain, in its finality and in its enormity, but is serves no penal purpose more effectively than a less severe punishment. ↗

— William J. Brennan

#effectively #enormity #finality #less #more

Admitting weakness seems to be such a severe psychic threat for Bush that when he makes a mistake it's safer just to reinforce it. The strategy creates a perverse system of rewards and punishments. ↗

— Tina Brown

#bush #creates #just #makes #mistake

Guilt always hurries towards its complement, punishment; only there does its satisfaction lie. ↗

— Lawrence Durrell

#complement #does #guilt #hurries #lie

All pain is a punishment, and every punishment is inflicted for love as much as for justice. ↗

— Joseph de Maistre

#inflicted #justice #love #much #pain

We are born knowing nothing and with much striving we learn but a little; yet all the while we are bound by laws that hearken to no plea of ignorance, and measure out their rewards and punishments with calm indifference. ↗

— Paul Elmer More

#bound #calm #hearken #ignorance #indifference