Capital Punishment Quotes - Page 3

• For even the very wise cannot see all ends.

  J. R. R. Tolkien

  Wise, Fellowship, Death Penalty

  J.R.R. Tolkien (2012). “The Lord of the Rings: One Volume”, p.53, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• Capital punishment...treats members of the human race...as objects to be toyed with and discarded.

  William J. Brennan

  Race, Punishment, Treats

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• Capital punishment in my view achieved nothing except revenge.

  Albert Pierrepoint

  Revenge, Views, Punishment

  Albert Pierrepoint (1974). “Executioner, Pierrepoint”

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• Supporters of capital punishment bear a special responsibility to ensure the fairness of this irreversible punishment.

  William J. Clinton

  Responsibility, Punishment, Special

  Clinton, William J. (2000). “Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton, 2000-2001”, p.2652, Best Books on

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• I contend that it's impossible to read the Sermon on the Mount and not come out against capital punishment.

  Tony Campolo

  Punishment, Impossible, Sermons

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• What will be left of the power of example if it is proved that capital punishment has another power, and a very real one, which degrades men to the point of shame, madness, and murder?

  Albert Camus

  Real, Men, Example

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

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• We make needless ado about capital punishment,--taking lives, when there is no life to take.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Life, Punishment

  Henry David Thoreau (2002). “The Essays of Henry D. Thoreau: Selected and Edited by Lewis Hyde”, p.377, North Point Press

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• The law which attempts a man's life [capital punishment] is impractical, unjust, inadmissible. It has never repressed crime - for a second crime is every day committed at the foot of the scaffold.

  Marquis de Sade

  Men, Law, Feet

  "Philosophy in the Bedroom". Book by Marquis de Sade. Chapter: "Yet Another Effort, Frenchmen, If You Would Become Republicans", 1795.

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• I would say that there are a lot of people who currently disagree with the death penalty, I just hope that it's never one of their family members that is killed, because then they will probably change their mind on capital punishment.

  John Cabello

  People, Mind, Death Penalty

  Source: www.teenink.com

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• For years I supported capital punishment, but I have come to believe that our criminal justice system is incapable of adequately distinguishing between the innocent and guilty. It is reprehensible and immoral to gamble with life and death.

  James Frey

  Believe, Years, Punishment

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• My own view on capital punishment is that it is morally justified, but that the government is often so inept and corrupt that innocent people might die as a result. Thus, I personally oppose capital punishment.

  Ed Crane

  Government, Views, Punishment

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• The most absurd apology for authority and law is that they serve to diminish crime. Aside from the fact that the State is itself the greatest criminal, breaking every written and natural law, stealing in the form of taxes, killing in the form of war and capital punishment, it has come to an absolute standstill in coping with crime. It has failed utterly to destroy or even minimize the horrible scourge of its own creation.

  Emma Goldman

  War, Apology, Law

  Emma Goldman (2015). “Anarchism: Top Crime Collections”, p.33, 谷月社

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• Opponents of capital punishment argue that the state has no right to take a murderer's life. Apparently, one fact that abolitionists forget or overlook is that the state is acting not only on behalf of society, but also on behalf of the murdered person and the murdered person's family.

  Dennis Prager

  Punishment, Acting, Opponents

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• In case anybody asks you about my position on capital punishment, you can tell them I favor it; and if they want to know why, you can tell them this story.

  Ronald Reagan

  Punishment, Favors, Want

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• Make your way to death row and speak with the tragic victims of criminality. As they prepare to make their pathetic walk to the electric chair, their hopeless cry is that society will not forgive. Capital punishment is society's final assertion that it will not forgive.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Punishment, Forgiving, Finals

  Martin Luther King (Jr.) (2012). “A Gift of Love: Sermons from Strength to Love and Other Preachings”, p.36, Beacon Press

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• We should find ourselves committed to killing a great many people whom we now leave living, and to leave living a great many people whom we at present kill. We should have to get rid of all ideas about capital punishment.

  George Bernard Shaw

  Punishment, Ideas, Eugenics

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• I would like to see capital punishment suppressed in all democracies.

  Lionel Jospin

  Punishment, Democracy

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• The true, unacknowledged purpose of capital punishment is to inspire fear and awe -- fear and awe of the State.

  Edward Abbey

  Punishment, Inspire, Purpose

  Edward Abbey (2015). “A Voice Crying in the Wilderness”, p.17, RosettaBooks

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• Many of us do not believe in capital punishment, because thus society takes from a man what society cannot give.

  Katharine Fullerton Gerould

  Believe, Men, Giving

  Katharine Fullerton Gerould (1920). “Modes and Morals”

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• Capital punishment is the source of many an argument, both good and bad.

  Marilyn vos Savant

  Punishment, Argument, Source

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• [I support] term limits for career politicians and the death penalty for career politicians.

  Bill Frist

  Death, Careers, Support

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• It is said to be a deterrent. I cannot agree....I do not now believe that any one of the hundreds of executions I carried out has in any way acted as a deterrent against future murder. Capital punishment, in my view, achieved nothing except revenge.

  Albert Pierrepoint

  Revenge, Believe, Views

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• Centuries from now our great-great-great-grandchildren will look back at us with amazement at how we could allow such a precious achievement of human culture as the telling of a story to be shattered into smithereens by commercials, the same amazement we feel today when we look at our ancestors for whom slavery, capital punishment, burning of witches, and the inquisition were acceptable everyday events.

  Werner Herzog

  Grandchildren, Punishment, Achievement

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• I think capital punishment's day is done in this country. I don't think it's fairly applied.

  Oliver North

  Country, Thinking, Punishment

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• I have been brought up in a culture where capital punishment is indeed anathema. I have always thought of myself as a principled opponent to capital punishment. However, when thinking about how the topic is handled in other cultures, in particular the American, Russian and Chinese ones, I have realised that my own tack on the issue was utterly superficial.

  Torbjorn Tannsjo

  Thinking, Other Cultures, Punishment

  Source: www.3ammagazine.com

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