“Executions, far from being useful examples to the survivors, have, I am persuaded, a quite contrary effect, by hardening the heart they ought to terrify.”
Letter 19
Letters Written in Sweden (1796)
Context: Executions, far from being useful examples to the survivors, have, I am persuaded, a quite contrary effect, by hardening the heart they ought to terrify. Besides, the fear of an ignominious death, I believe, never deterred anyone from the commission of a crime, because in committing it the mind is roused to activity about present circumstances.
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Mary Wollstonecraft 44
British writer and philosopher 1759–1797Related quotes
Letter to his brother Jeremiah https://archive.org/stream/lifeandlettersof00sanbrich/lifeandlettersof00sanbrich_djvu.txt (12 November 1859).
“Comfort” is no test of truth; on the contrary, truth is often far from being “comfortable.”
Pearls of Wisdom
Speech at McKay Events Center in Orem, Utah, September 22, 2000. http://renewamerica.us/archives/speeches/00_09_22mckay.htm.
2000
“I am ready to obey as a child; — but, not being a child, I think I ought to have a reason.”
Source: The Prime Minister (1876), Ch. 9
volume II, chapter II: "The Growth of the 'Origin of Species' — 1843-1856", page 23 http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?pageseq=39&itemID=F1452.2&viewtype=image; letter http://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/entry-729 to J.D. Hooker (11 January 1844)
The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin (1887)
“Brother men who after us live on,
Harden not your hearts against us.”
Freres humains qui après nous vivez,
N'avez les cuers contre nous endurcis.
"L'Epitaphe Villon (Villon's Epitaph)", or "Ballade des Pendus (Ballade of the Hanged)", line 1. (1463).