Penalties Quotes - Page 15

• The death penalty would be even more effective, as a deterrent, if we executed a few innocent people more often.

  Edward Abbey

  People, Would Be, Death Penalty

  Edward Abbey (2015). “A Voice Crying in the Wilderness”, p.20, RosettaBooks

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• My penalty for rocking the boat was being traded.

  Ted Lindsay

  Boat, Rocking The Boat

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• History provides neither compensation for suffering nor penalties for wrong.

  Lord Acton

  History, Suffering, Compensation

  "Historical Essays and Studies". Book by John Emerich Edward Dalberg-Acton, oll.libertyfund.org. 1907.

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• I agree with Thomas Jefferson, who once wrote that he would support the death penalty only when the infallibility of human judgment had been demonstrated.

  Paul Jacob

  Support, Death Penalty, Judgment

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• Laws alone can not secure freedom of expression; in order that every man present his views without penalty there must be spirit of tolerance in the entire population.

  Albert Einstein

  Inspirational, Motivational, Freedom

  Albert Einstein (2011). “Out of My Later Years: The Scientist, Philosopher, and Man Portrayed Through His Own Words”, p.14, Open Road Media

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• The costs can't be borne by smaller counties particularly, so if the crime occurs in a large county you might be charged with the death penalty, in a smaller county you're not. That raises some significant questions about fairness.

  Greg Zoeller

  Cost, Might, Fairness

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• I have examined the death penalty under each of its two aspects: as a direct action, and as an indirect one. What does it come down to? Nothing but something horrible and useless, nothing but a way of shedding blood that is called a crime when an individual commits it, but is sadly called "justice" when society brings it about. Make no mistake, you lawmakers and judges, in the eyes of God as in those of conscience, what is a crime when individuals do it is no less an offense when society commits the deed.

  Victor Hugo

  Mistake, Eye, Direct Action

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• Penalties against possession of a drug should not be more damaging to an individual than the use of the drug itself; and where they are, they should be changed. Nowhere is this more clear than in the laws against possession of marijuana in private for personal use... Therefore, I support legislation amending Federal law to eliminate all Federal criminal penalties for the possession of up to one ounce [28g] of marijuana.

  Jimmy Carter

  Weed, Marijuana, Law

  U.S. President in a message to the U.S. Congress, 1977.

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• Other states are trying to abolish the death penalty... mine's putting in an express lane.

  Ron White

  Trying, Death Penalty, States

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• If you think aficionados of a living Constitution want to bring you flexibility, think again. You think the death penalty is a good idea? Persuade your fellow citizens to adopt it. You want a right to abortion? Persuade your fellow citizens and enact it. That's flexibility.

  Antonin Scalia

  Thinking, Ideas, Abortion

  "Scalia Slams 'Living Constitution' Theory". www.foxnews.com. March 14, 2005.

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• Strangely enough, politics may just be the one realm in which having kids imposes no penalty on women. Kids are practically a necessity. For scientists, or Supreme Court justices, or chief executives, or the woman who wants to learn to fly F-l8s off an aircraft carrier, it works differently.

  Stacy Schiff

  Kids, Justice, Aircraft Carriers

  "Of Mama Grizzly Born?". Interview with Gail Collins, opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com. August 18, 2010.

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• I saw my parents as gods whose every wish must be obeyed or I would suffer the penalty of anguish and guilt.

  Natalie Wood

  Parent, Suffering, Wish

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• McVeigh's lawyer got him the death penalty, which, quite frankly, I could have done.

  Jon Stewart

  Done, Death Penalty, Lawyer

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• No period of history has ever been great or ever can be that does not act on some sort of high, idealistic motives, and idealism in our time has been shoved aside, and we are paying the penalty for it.

  Alfred North Whitehead

  Doe, Periods, Idealism

  Alfred North Whitehead, Lucien Price (2001). “Dialogues of Alfred North Whitehead”, p.272, David R. Godine Publisher

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• But Mole stood still a moment, held in thought. As one wakened suddenly from a beautiful dream, who struggles to recall it, but can recapture nothing but a dim sense of the beauty in it, the beauty! Till that, too, fades away in its turn, and the dreamer bitterly accepts the hard, cold waking and all its penalties.

  Kenneth Grahame

  Beautiful, Dream, Struggle

  Kenneth Grahame (2012). “The Wind in the Willows: (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)”, p.73, Penguin

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• You know what an effective deterrent to crime is? Jail! And do you know what kind of criminal penalty actually makes people think twice about committing crimes the next time? The kind that actually comes out of some individual's pocket, not fines that come out of the corporate kitty.

  Matt Taibbi

  Thinking, Jail, People

  "Justice Department's New Get-Tough Policy Is, Well, Not". Article by Matt Taibbi, www.rollingstone.com. February 20, 2013.

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• From this day forward, I no longer shall tinker with the machinery of death. For more than 20 years I have endeavored - indeed, I have struggled - along with a majority of this Court, to develop procedural and substantive rules that would lend more than the mere appearance of fairness to the death penalty endeavor. Rather than continue to coddle the Court's delusion that the desired level of fairness has been achieved and the need for regulation eviscerated, I feel morally and intellectually obligated to concede that the death penalty experiment has failed.

  Harry A. Blackmun

  Years, Majority, Needs

  "Bruce Edwin Callins v. James A. Collins 510 U.S. 1141". The U.S. Supreme Court case No. 93-7054, www.law.cornell.edu. February 22, 1994.

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• I don't think I would want the responsibility for enforcing the death penalties. There's always the inevitable question of whether someone you gave the order to execute might truly have been innocent.

  Jesse Ventura

  Responsibility, Thinking, Order

  Jesse Ventura (2000). “I Ain't Got Time to Bleed: Reworking the Body Politic from the Bottom Up”, p.34, Villard

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• The death penalty serves no one. It doesn't serve the victims. It doesn't serve prevention. It's truly all about retribution....There comes a time when you have to ask if a penalty that is so permanent can be available in such an imperfect system. The only guarantee against executing the innocent is to do away with the death penalty.

  Jeanne Woodford

  Guarantees, Prevention, Death Penalty

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• The penalty for laughing in a courtroom is six months in jail; if it were not for this penalty, the jury would never hear the evidence.

  H. L. Mencken

  Funny, Laughter, Humorous

  A Little Book in C Major ch. 4 (1916)

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• I come from the state of Michigan. We were the first English-speaking government in the world to outlaw the death penalty, back in the 1840s. We have never had, as a state, the death penalty in Michigan. I was raised with that, and even Republicans in Michigan, nobody would even think of putting a measure on the ballot to have the death penalty.

  Michael Moore

  Thinking, Government, Firsts

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• Judged by the law of England, I know this crime entails upon me the penalty of death; but the history of Ireland explains that crime and justifies it.

  Thomas Francis Meagher

  Law, England, Crime

  Thomas Francis Meagher (1885). “Speeches on the Legislative Independence of Ireland”

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• We as Americans believe it’s OK to kill people. We believe it’s OK to invade a country that had nothing to do with 9/11. We think it’s OK to invade a country where we think Osama Bin Laden is and he’s in the other country. So we just go in and we just kill. And we have the death penalty, we sanction it.

  Michael Moore

  Country, Believe, Thinking

  "Michael Moore: Gun Control Necessary, Now" by Nicole Evatt, www.huffingtonpost.com. January 9, 2013.

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• To speak and act truth with constancy and precision is nearly as difficult, and perhaps as meretorious, as to speak it under intimidation or penalty

  John Ruskin

  Speak, Intimidation, Precision

  John Ruskin (2015). “The Seven Lamps of Architecture”, p.42, John Ruskin

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• Staying out of the penalty box will really help.

  Bobby Orr

  Stay Strong, Helping, Boxes

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