He must have known me if he had seen me as he was wont to see me, for he was in the habit of flogging me constantly. Perhaps he did not recognize me by my face.
—Anthony Trollope (1815–82) English Novelist
One should not lift the rod against our enemies upon the private information of another.
—The Hitopadesha Indian Collection of Fables
Retaliation is related to nature and instinct, not to law. Law, by definition, cannot obey the same rules as nature.
—Albert Camus (1913–60) Algerian-born French Philosopher, Dramatist, Essayist, Novelist, Author
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
The object of punishment is three fold: for just retribution; for the protection of society; for the reformation of the offender.
—Tryon Edwards American Theologian
There is no person so severely punished, as those who subject themselves to the whip of their own remorse.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca) (c.4 BCE–65 CE) Roman Stoic Philosopher, Statesman, Tragedian
Whipping and abuse are like laudanum; you have to double the dose as the sensibilities decline.
—Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811–96) American Abolitionist, Author
Wickedness, when properly punished, is disgraceful only to the offender; unpunished, it is disgraceful to the whole community.
—Charles Simmons (1924–2017) American Editor, Novelist
If he who breaks the law is not punished, he who obeys it is cheated. This, and this alone, is why lawbreakers ought to be punished: to authenticate as good, and to encourage as useful, law-abiding behavior. The aim of criminal law cannot be correction or deterrence; it can only be the maintenance of the legal order.
—Thomas Szasz (1920–2012) Hungarian-American Psychiatrist, Psychoanalyst
I should be very willing to redress men wrongs, and rather check than punish crimes, had not Cervantes, in that all too true tale of Quixote, shown how all such efforts fail.
—Lord Byron (George Gordon Byron) (1788–1824) English Romantic 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
Correction does much, but encouragement does more. Encouragement after censure is as the sun after a shower.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
Thwackum was for doing justice, and leaving mercy to Heaven.
—Henry Fielding (1707–54) English Novelist, Dramatist
Hanging is too good for him said Mr. Cruelty.
—John Bunyan (1628–88) English Puritan Writer, Preacher
Then spare the rod and spoil the child.
—Samuel Butler
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
Distrust everyone in whom the impulse to punish is powerful!
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German Philosopher, Scholar, Writer
The generality of men are naturally apt to be swayed by fear rather than reverence, and to refrain from evil rather because of the punishment that it brings than because of its own foulness.
—Aristotle (384BCE–322BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher, Scholar
The first and greatest punishment of the sinner is the conscience of sin.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca) (c.4 BCE–65 CE) Roman Stoic Philosopher, Statesman, Tragedian
The punishment of criminals should be of use; when a man is hanged he is good for nothing.
—Voltaire (1694–1778) French Philosopher, Author
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
The public has more interest in the punishment of an injury than the one who receives it.
—Charles Caleb Colton (c.1780–1832) English Clergyman, Aphorist
Take away the danger and remove the restraint, and wayward nature runs free.
—Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus) (65–8 BCE) Roman Poet
We will not punish a man because he hath offended, but that he may offend no more; nor does punishment ever look to the past, but to the future; for it is not the result of passion, but that the same thing may be guarded against in time to come.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca) (c.4 BCE–65 CE) Roman Stoic Philosopher, Statesman, Tragedian
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
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
Prisons are built with stones of Law. Brothels with the bricks of religion.
—William Blake (1757–1827) English Poet, Painter, Printmaker
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
When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love has always won. There have been tyrants and murderers and for a time they seem invincible but in the end, they always fall—think of it, always.
—Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869–1948) Indian Hindu Political leader
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