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
Distrust everyone in whom the impulse to punish is powerful!
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German Philosopher, Scholar, Writer
One man meets an infamous punishment for that crime which confers a diadem upon another.
—Juvenal (c.60–c.136 CE) Roman Poet
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
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, Novelist, Historian
Punishment is the last and the least effective instrument in the hands of the legislator for the prevention of crime.
—John Ruskin (1819–1900) English Writer, Art Critic
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
Hanging is too good for him said Mr. Cruelty.
—John Bunyan (1628–88) English Puritan Writer, Preacher
Thwackum was for doing justice, and leaving mercy to Heaven.
—Henry Fielding (1707–54) English Novelist, Dramatist
Let the punishment be proportionate to the offense.
—Cicero (106BCE–43BCE) Roman Philosopher, Orator, Politician, Lawyer
Any punishment that does not correct, that can merely rouse rebellion in whoever has to endure it, is a piece of gratuitous infamy which makes those who impose it more guilty in the eyes of humanity, good sense and reason, nay a hundred times more guilty than the victim on whom the punishment is inflicted.
—Marquis de Sade (1740–1814) French Political leader, Revolutionary, Novelist, Poet, Critic
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
We do not aim to correct the man we hang; we correct and warn others by him.
—Michel de Montaigne (1533–92) French Essayist
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
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
There is no future pang can deal that justice on the self-condemned, he deals on his own soul.
—Lord Byron (George Gordon Byron) (1788–1824) English Romantic Poet
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
Instruction does much, but encouragement does everything.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
In its function, the power to punish is not essentially different from that of curing or educating.
—Michel Foucault (1926–84) French Philosopher, Critic, Historian
There is no greater punishment than that of being abandoned to one’s self.
—Pasquier Quesnel (1634–1719) French Jansenist Theologian
Whipping and abuse are like laudanum; you have to double the dose as the sensibilities decline.
—Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811–96) American Abolitionist, Author
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 very worst use to which you can put a man, says Wilkes, is to hang him; but the hanging is not to make the man useful, but to punish his crime and protect society.
—Charles Simmons (1924–2017) American Editor, Novelist
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
It is the crime not the scaffold which is the disgrace.
—Pierre Corneille (1606–84) French Poet, Dramatist
When God punishes a land, he deprives it leaders of wisdom.
—Italian Proverb
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
If your buttocks burn, you know you have done wrong.
—African Proverb
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
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
Next to the prosperity of a good person, I am best pleased with the confusion of a rascal.
—Unknown
Why not whip the teacher when the pupil misbehaves?
—Diogenes Laertius (f.3rd Century CE) Biographer of the Greek Philosophers
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
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
The seeds of our punishment are sown at the same time we commit the sin.
—Hesiod (f.700 BCE) Greek Poet
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 work of eradicating crimes is not by making punishment familiar, but formidable.
—Oliver Goldsmith (1730–74) Irish Novelist, Playwright, Poet
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
It is hard, but it is excellent, to find the right knowledge of when correction is necessary, and when grace doth most avail.
—Philip Sidney (1554–86) English Soldier Poet, Courtier
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
One should not lift the rod against our enemies upon the private information of another.
—The Hitopadesha Indian Collection of Fables
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
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
Men are not hanged for stealing horses, but that horses may not be stolen.
—E. F. L. Wood, 1st Earl of Halifax (1881–1959) British Politician, Political leader
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
Punishment is lame, but it comes.
—George Herbert (1593–1633) Welsh Anglican Poet, Orator, Clergyman
Then spare the rod and spoil the child.
—Samuel Butler
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
Take away the danger and remove the restraint, and wayward nature runs free.
—Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus) (65–8 BCE) Roman Poet