“That excessive bail ought not to be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.”

— George Mason

Article 9
Virginia Declaration of Rights (1776)

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George Mason 54

American delegate from Virginia to the U.S. Constitutional … 1725–1792

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“[B]y requiring that an execution be relatively painless, we necessarily protect the inmate from enduring any punishment that is comparable to the suffering inflicted on his victim. This trend, while appropriate and required by the Eighth Amendment's prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment, actually undermines the very premise on which public approval of the retribution rationale is based.”

John Paul Stevens (1920–2019) Former Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States

Concurring in the judgment, Baze v. Rees, 553 U.S. 35 (2008).

“If not for our excessive vanity and our over-active imaginations, novelists might be unusually difficult to deceive.”

William Gibson (1948) American-Canadian speculative fiction novelist and founder of the cyberpunk subgenre

Twitter tweet (31 May 2009) http://twitter.com/GreatDismal/status/1986617191
Context: The most common human act that writing a novel resembles is lying. The working novelist lies daily, very complexly, and at great length. If not for our excessive vanity and our over-active imaginations, novelists might be unusually difficult to deceive.

“Intellectual over-indulgence is the most gratuitous and disgraceful form which excess can take, nor is there any the consequences of which are more disastrous.”

Samuel Butler (1835–1902) novelist

Intellectual Self-Indulgence
The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1912), Part II - Elementary Morality

“This excessive love for "the balance of power" is neither more nor less than a gigantic system of out-door relief for the aristocracy of Great Britain.”

John Bright (1811–1889) British Radical and Liberal statesman

Speech in Birmingham (29 October 1858), quoted in G. M. Trevelyan, The Life of John Bright (London: Constable, 1913), pp. 273-274.
1850s

“Use, do not abuse; as the wise man commands. I flee Epictetus and Petronius alike. Neither abstinence nor excess ever renders man happy.”

Voltaire (1694–1778) French writer, historian, and philosopher

Usez, n’abusez point; le sage ainsi l’ordonne.
Je fuis également Épictète et Pétrone.
L’abstinence ou l’excès ne fit jamais d’heureux.
"Cinquième discours: sur la nature de plaisir," Sept Discours en Vers sur l'Homme (1738)
Citas

“A society can neither advance nor improve without excess of disposable income. This excess can only be amassed through the productions of goods and services necessary or attractive to the mass. A financial system which allows this leads to inequality; one that does not leads to mass starvation. Page 10.”

David Mamet (1947) American playwright, essayist, screenwriter, and film director

The Secret Knowledge

“Fair Elphin, dry your cheeks!
Such sorrow does not become you,
Although you consider yourself cheated
Excessive sorrow gains nothing,
Nor will doubting God's miracles.”

Taliesin (534–599) Welsh bard

The Tale of Taleisin

“I propose that it shall be no longer malum in se for a citizen to pummel, cowhide, kick, gouge, cut, wound, bruise, maim, burn, club, bastinado, flay, or even lynch a [government] jobholder, and that it shall be malum prohibitum only to the extent that the punishment exceeds the jobholder’s deserts. The amount of this excess, if any, may be determined very conveniently by a petit jury, as other questions of guilt are now determined. The flogged judge, or Congressman, or other jobholder, on being discharged from hospital — or his chief heir, in case he has perished — goes before a grand jury and makes a complaint, and, if a true bill is found, a petit jury is empaneled and all the evidence is put before it. If it decides that the jobholder deserves the punishment inflicted upon him, the citizen who inflicted it is acquitted with honor. If, on the contrary, it decides that this punishment was excessive, then the citizen is adjudged guilty of assault, mayhem, murder, or whatever it is, in a degree apportioned to the difference between what the jobholder deserved and what he got, and punishment for that excess follows in the usual course.”

H.L. Mencken (1880–1956) American journalist and writer

"The Malevolent Jobholder," The American Mercury (June 1924), p. 156
1920s

“Excessive sorrow laughs. Excessive joy weeps.”

William Blake (1757–1827) English Romantic poet and artist

“Islam neither requires one to be practising, nor to dress in one way or another. So imposing the veil on a woman is contrary to the principles of Islam.”

Queen Rania of Jordan (1970) Queen consort of Jordan

Interview with Corriere della Sera, as quoted in " Muslim women don't have to wear veils: Rania http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticleNew.asp?xfile=data/middleeast/2007/February/middleeast_February139.xml&section=middleeast&col=", Khaleej Times (9 February 2007)
Context: Islam neither requires one to be practising, nor to dress in one way or another. So imposing the veil on a woman is contrary to the principles of Islam. … Unfortunately, after all the suspicion weighing on Islam, many people have begun to consider the veil as a political problem, but this is not the case … Wearing the veil is a free personal choice.

“That excessive bail ought not to be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.”

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