The exposition of future punishment in God’s word is not to be regarded as a threat, but as a merciful declaration.—If in the ocean of life, over which we are bound to eternity, there are these rocks and shoals, it is no cruelty to chart them down; it is an eminent and prominent mercy.
—Henry Ward Beecher (1813–87) American Clergyman, Writer
Don’t let us rejoice in punishment, even when the hand of God alone inflicts it. The best of us are but poor wretches just saved from shipwreck. Can we feel anything but awe and pity when we see a fellow passenger swallowed by the waves?
—George Eliot (Mary Anne Evans) (1819–80) English Novelist
The certainty of punishment, even more than its severity, is the preventive of crime.
—Tryon Edwards (1809–94) American Theologian, Author
Jails and prisons are the complement of schools; so many less as you have of the latter, so many more you must have of the former.
—Horace Mann (1796–1859) American Educator, Politician, Educationalist
Never was the voice of conscience silenced without retribution.
—Anna Brownell Jameson (1794–1860) Irish-born Literary, Art Critic
Let wickedness escape, as it may at the bar, it never fails of doing justice upon itself; for every guilty person is his own hangman.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca) (c.4 BCE–65 CE) Roman Stoic Philosopher, Statesman, Tragedian
The object of punishment is three fold: for just retribution; for the protection of society; for the reformation of the offender.
—Tryon Edwards (1809–94) American Theologian, Author
God is on the side of virtue; for whoever dreads punishment suffers it, and whoever deserves it dreads it.
—Charles Caleb Colton (c.1780–1832) English Clergyman, Aphorist
Hanging is too good for him said Mr. Cruelty.
—John Bunyan (1628–88) English Puritan Writer, Preacher
Prisons are built with stones of Law. Brothels with the bricks of religion.
—William Blake (1757–1827) English Poet, Painter, Printmaker
Even legal punishments lose all appearance of justice, when too strictly inflicted on men compelled by the last extremity of distress to incur them.
—Junius Unidentified English Writer
Crime and punishment grow out of one stem. Punishment is a fruit that, unsuspected, ripens with the flower of the pleasure that concealed it.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
Hold you there, neither a strange hand nor my own, neither heavy nor light shall touch my bum.
—Miguel de Cervantes (1547–1616) Spanish Novelist
It is as expedient that a wicked man be punished as that a sick man be cured by a physician; for all chastisement is a kind of medicine.
—Plato (428 BCE–347 BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher, Mathematician, Educator
Let the punishment be proportionate to the offense.
—Cicero (106BCE–43BCE) Roman Philosopher, Orator, Politician, Lawyer
The punishment of criminals should be of use; when a man is hanged he is good for nothing.
—Voltaire (1694–1778) French Philosopher, Author
I’m all for bringing back the birch, but only between consenting adults.
—Gore Vidal (1925–48) American Novelist, Essayist, Journalist, Playwright
Our system is the height of absurdity, since we treat the culprit both as a child, so as to have the right to punish him, and as an adult, in order to deny him consolation.
—Claude Levi-Strauss (1908–2009) French Social Anthropologist, Philosopher
To make punishments efficacious, two things are necessary; they must never be disproportioned to the offence, and they must be certain.
—William Gilmore Simms (1806–70) American Poet, Historian, Novelist, Editor
Why not whip the teacher when the pupil misbehaves?
—Diogenes Laertius (f.3rd Century CE) Biographer of the Greek Philosophers
The work of eradicating crimes is not by making punishment familiar, but formidable.
—Oliver Goldsmith (1730–74) Irish Novelist, Playwright, Poet
Let us have compassion for those under chastisement. Alas, who are we ourselves? Who am I and who are you? Whence do we come and is it quite certain that we did nothing before we were born? This earth is not without some resemblance to a gaol. Who knows but that man is a victim of divine justice? Look closely at life. It is so constituted that one senses punishment everywhere.
—Victor Hugo (1802–85) French Novelist
Punishment is justice for the unjust.
—Augustine of Hippo (354–430) Roman-African Christian Philosopher
Many without punishment, none without sin.
—John Ray (1627–1705) English Naturalist, Theologian
All in all, punishment hardens and renders people more insensible; it concentrates; it increases the feeling of estrangement; it strengthens the power of resistance.
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German Philosopher, Scholar, Writer
Take away the danger and remove the restraint, and wayward nature runs free.
—Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus) (65–8 BCE) Roman Poet
One man meets an infamous punishment for that crime which confers a diadem upon another.
—Juvenal (c.60–c.136 CE) Roman Poet
Capital punishment would be more effective as a preventive measure if it were administered prior to the crime.
—Woody Allen (b.1935) American Film Actor, Director
As one reads history, not in the expurgated editions written for schoolboys and passmen, but in the original authorities of each time, one is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed, but by the punishments that the good have inflicted; and a community is infinitely more brutalised by the habitual employment of punishment than it is by the occasional occurrence of crime.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
Faults of the head are punished in this world; those of the heart in another; but as most of our vices are compound, so is their punishment.
—Charles Caleb Colton (c.1780–1832) English Clergyman, Aphorist
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