Penalties Quotes

• For centuries the death penalty, often accompanied by barbarous refinements, has been trying to hold crime in check; yet crime persists. Why? Because the instincts that are warring in man are not, as the law claims, constant forces in a state of equilibrium.

  Albert Camus

  Men, Law, Trying

  Albert Camus (2012). “Resistance, Rebellion, and Death: Essays”, p.190, Vintage

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• Tears are the natural penalties of pleasure. It is a law that we should pay for all that we enjoy.

  William Gilmore Simms

  Law, Tears, Pay

  William Gilmore Simms (1853). “Egeria: Or Voices of Thought and Counsel, for the Woods and Wayside”, p.45

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• The death penalty is being applied in the United States as a fatal lottery.

  Bianca Jagger

  United States, Death Penalty, Lottery

  "Texas parole board considers fate of condemned man". www.cnn.com. June 22, 2000.

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• Some devout Christians are among the most fervent advocates of the death penalty, contradicting Jesus Christ and justifying their belief on an erroneous interpretation of Hebrew Scriptures. "An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth," their most likely response, overlooks the fact that this was promulgated by Moses as a limitation- a prohibition against taking both eyes or all of an offender's teeth in retribution.

  Jimmy Carter

  Christian, Jesus, Eye

  Jimmy Carter (2005). “Our Endangered Values: America's Moral Crisis”, p.82, Simon and Schuster

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• Not all moral issues have the same moral weight as abortion and euthanasia. There may be legitimate diversity of opinion even among Catholics about waging war and applying the death penalty, but not... with regard to abortion and euthanasia.

  Pope Benedict XVI

  War, Issues, Diversity

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• I support the death penalty. But I also think there has to be no margin for error.

  George Ryan

  Thinking, Errors, Support

  "Death penalty officially ends in Illinois". www.wbez.org. July 1, 2011.

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• I don't have any authority to talk about the domestic policies of America. But as an outsider, I am mystified by the fact that you are encouraged to buy a gun, but if you use it for the purpose that it is expressly designed for, you get the death penalty. That aspect of America is kind of mystifying.

  Nick Cave

  Gun, America, Purpose

  "Q&A: Nick Cave and the Golden Reverb of Violence". Interview with Mike Ayers, www.esquire.com. August 29, 2012.

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• I am against the death penalty.

  Andrew Cuomo

  Death Penalty, Against Death Penalty

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• You can't reconcile being pro-life on abortion and pro-death on the death penalty.

  N. T. Wright

  Pro Life, Abortion, Death Penalty

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• An individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for the law.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Motivational, Respect, Kings

  "Letter from Birmingham Jail," 16 Apr. 1963

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• If we are to abolish the death penalty, I should like to see the first step taken by our friends the murderers.

  Alphonse Karr

  Friendship, Death, Taken

  'Les Guêpes' January 1849

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• I have yet to see a death case among the dozen coming to the Supreme Court on eve-of-execution stay applications in which the defendant was well represented at trial... People who are well represented at trial do not get the death penalty.

  Ruth Bader Ginsburg

  Punishment, People, Trials

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  The devil has put a penalty on all things we enjoy in life. Either we suffer in our health, or we suffer in our soul, or we get fat.

  Albert Einstein

  Love, Life, God

  Attributed in "Einstein: The Life and Times" by Ronald W. Clark, (p. 737), 1971.

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• An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.

  Kurt Vonnegut

  Forgiveness, Revenge, Eye

  Kurt Vonnegut (2013). “If This Isn't Nice, What Is?: Advice for the Young”, p.26, RosettaBooks

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• I have come to think that capital punishment should be abolished.

  Jack Kemp

  Thinking, Punishment, Death Penalty

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• Government ... can't be trusted to control its own bureaucrats or collect taxes equitably or fill a pothole, much less decide which of its citizens to kill.

  Helen Prejean

  Government, Citizens, Death Penalty

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• The reality is that capital punishment in America is a lottery. It is a punishment that is shaped by the constraints of poverty, race, geography and local politics.

  Bryan Stevenson

  Reality, Race, Punishment

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• From this day forward, I no longer shall tinker with the machinery of death.

  Harry A. Blackmun

  Tinkering, Death Penalty, Human Rights

  Callins v.Collins (dissenting opinion) (1994)

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• Everything worthwhile, everything of any value, has its price. Everything anyone has ever wanted has come neatly wrapped up in its penalties.

  Loretta Young

  Worthwhile, Wanted, Values

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• One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.

  Plato

  Plato, War, Government

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• Gittin' talked about is one o' th' penalties for bein' purty, while bein' above suspicion is about th' only compensation fer bein' homely.

  Kin Hubbard

  Appearance, Being Pretty, Suspicion

  "Abe Martin's Primer: The Collected Writings of Abe Martin and his Brown County, Indiana, Neighbors". Book by Kin Hubbard, 1914.

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• Capital punishment is the most premeditated of murders.

  Albert Camus

  Punishment, Death Penalty, Murder

  "Reflections on the Guillotine". Book by Albert Camus, 1957.

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• I am of opinion that it is highly requisite forthwith to pass a law, prohibiting upon great penalties all trade with our enemies, and more especially the supplying of them with arms, ammunition or provisions of any kind whatsoever.

  William Shirley

  Law, Enemy, Arms

  William Shirley, National Society of the Colonial Dames of America (1973). “Correspondence of William Shirley, Governor of Massachusetts and military commander in America, 1731-1760”

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• The members of such a society consider that the transgression of a religious ordinance should be punished by civil penalties, and that the violation of a civil duty exposes the delinquent to divine correction.

  Henry James Sumner Maine

  Religious, Divine, Members

  Henry Sumner Maine, Sir, J. H. Morgan (2000). “Ancient Law”, p.14, Beard Books

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• Of course a politician's promise isn't worth the paper it's written on.

  Russell Pearce

  Silly, Agreement, Promise

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