Quotessence
Home / Topics / Capital Punishment Quotes

Capital Punishment Quotes

Browse 152 quotes about Capital Punishment.

Related topics

Death PenaltyIfsPeoplePenaltiesMurderCrimeStatesBelieveMenThinkingAgainst Death PenaltyInnocentShouldCriminalsMoralCountryDeathDeterrentDoeExecutionHas BeensHumansPrison

Capital Punishment Quotes

“Executing a murderer is the only way to adequately express our horror at the taking of an innocent life. Nothing else suffices. To equate the lives of killers with those of victims is the worst kind of moral equivalency. If capital punishment is state murder, then imprisonment is state kidnapping and restitution is state theft.”

IfsWayKindStatesMoralWorstHorrorMurderVictimPunishmentInnocentKillersMurdererTheftImprisonmentCapital PunishmentKidnappingExecutingRestitutionInnocent Life
Author:Don Feder
Create image

“Those subject to capital punishment are real human beings, with their own backgrounds and narratives. By contrast, those whose lives are or might be saved by virtue of capital punishment are mere 'statistical people.' They are both nameless and faceless, and their deaths are far less likely to be considered in moral deliberations.”

PeopleHumansRealMightHuman BeingsMoralVirtueSubjectsMereSavedPunishmentBackgroundsNarrativeContrastNamelessCapital PunishmentDeliberationReal HumanFaceless
Author:Cass Sunstein
Create image

“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.”

WaySpeakWalksCryVictimForgivingFinalsPunishmentChairsTragicHopelessElectricPatheticAssertionCapital PunishmentCriminalityDeath RowElectric Chair
Book:A Gift of Love: Sermons from Strength to Love and Other Preachings
Create image

“Capital punishment, that thing scares me, it really does. I was talking to my friend about the electric chair, and he starts freakin' out. He's like 'the electric chair? That's too good for these people. That's too good for them'. Alright, how do we make the electric chair worse? How about this? They have to pedal a car battery to their own head. Is that ok? Is that enough, Mr. Hitler?”

PeopleDoeEnoughTalkingCarMy FriendsPunishmentChairsScareElectricAlrightBatteriesCapital PunishmentPedalsElectric Chair
Author:Dave Attell
Create image

“I have been reluctant to lobby on other issues I most care about - nuclear weapons (against), religion (atheist), capital punishment (anti), AIDS (fund-raiser) because I don't want to be forever spouting, diluting the impact of addressing my most urgent concern - legal and social equality for gay people worldwide.”

PeopleWantHas BeensCareSocialForeverIssuesGayWeaponsConcernImpactAtheistAidsNuclearPunishmentFundNuclear WeaponsUrgentReluctantGay PeopleCapital PunishmentAgainst ReligionSocial Equality
Author:Ian Mckellen
Create image

“It's a tract against capital punishment in the genre of Swift's Modest Proposal. I was simply following a formula to its logical conclusion. Some people appear to have understood it. The publication of Naked Lunch in England practically coincided with their abolition of capital punishment. The book obviously had a certain effect.”

PeopleBookCertainEffectsUnderstoodEnglandFollowingPunishmentNakedConclusionGenreLogicalFormulasLunchModestProposalPublicationAbolitionCapital Punishment
Author:William S. Burroughs
Create image

“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.”

ThinkingHas BeensCultureMy OwnIssuesParticularPunishmentChineseOpponentsSuperficialTopicsRealisedCapital PunishmentOther CulturesPrincipledAnathema
Author:Torbjorn Tannsjo
Create image

“I remember on page one of The New York Times the article about Fred Leuchter. The heading was "Can Capital Punishment Be Humane" and it was the story about an electric chair repairman and execution machine designer. And then buried in the back of the paper was the fact that Fred Leuchter had also been involved in holocaust denial.”

FactsStoriesRememberNew YorkInvolvedPaperPagesMachinesPunishmentDenialDesignerChairsBuriedArticlesHolocaustExecutionElectricHumaneNew York TimesHeadingsCapital PunishmentHolocaust DenialElectric Chair
Author:Errol Morris
Create image

“The violence inherent in our systems and structures of power is a part of who we are - our thoughts, sensibilities, imaginations, language. We live in manifestations of it - permanent war, environmental destrucution, poverty, racism, misogyny, the assault on labor, torture in our prisons, capital punishment - a corporate capitalist state controlled by oligarchical interests for their own private profit and gain.”

WarLanguageInterestImaginationPovertyViolenceRacismLaborPrisonEnvironmentalManifestationTortureCapitalistSensibilityMisogynyCapital Punishment
Author:Lawrence Joseph
Create image

“I think we have to have capital punishment, I think there has to be something to contain certain people. Those deterrents I think are necessary, especially in prison. You can threaten people for just so long, but they can flip you off and do what they want to; but not if they have to die. I hate it, though, the thought of the death penalty is terrible, but it's completely necessary.”

PeopleThinkingLongHateTerribleI HatePrisonDeath PenaltyCapital Punishment
Author:Merle Haggard
Create image

“Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement. For even the very wise cannot see all ends.”

GivingEndsDeathDiesDealsWiseJudgmentDeserveRingsJudgementFellowshipDeath PenaltyAccuracyCapital PunishmentFrodoVery WiseFellowship Of The RingMiddle EarthLord Of The RingAgainst Death Penalty
Book:The Lord of the Rings: One Volume
Create image

“The second item in the liberal creed, after self-righteousness, is unaccountability. Liberals have invented whole college majors--psychology, sociology, women's studies--to prove that nothing is anybody's fault. No one is fond of taking responsibility for his actions, but consider how much you'd have to hate free will to come up with a political platform that advocates killing unborn babies but not convicted murderers. A callous pragmatist might favor abortion and capital punishment. A devout Christian would sanction neither. But it takes years of therapy to arrive at the liberal view.”

YearsSelfWholeMightActionChristianPoliticalHateViewsResponsibilityStudyPsychologyCollegeBabyProveMajorsFaultsKillingCome UpFavorsPunishmentTherapyAbortionFree WillRighteousnessPlatformsCreedsSociologyTaking ResponsibilityMurdererItemsSanctionsUnbornSelf RighteousnessCapital PunishmentCallousPragmatistsUnborn Baby
Book:Give War a Chance: Eyewitness Accounts of Mankind's Struggle Against Tyranny, Injustice, and Alcohol-Free Beer
Create image

“It is significant that, as innocent babies are killed, and capital punishment is withheld from their murderers, the same men who plead for the murderer's life also demand the “right” to abortion. Usually, the same picketers that carry a sign one day, “Abolish Capital Punishment,” also carry “Legalize Abortion” another day. When this is called to their attention, their answer is, “There is no contradiction involved.” They are right: the thesis is “condemn the innocent and free the guilty.”

MenAnswersAttentionBabyInvolvedOne DayDemandSignificantPunishmentInnocentGuiltyAbortionContradictionMurdererAbolishAnother DayThesisCapital Punishment
Author:R.J. Rushdoony
Create image

“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.”

WarStatesFactsFormLawNaturalWrittenCrimeCreationTaxesAuthorityAbsolutesKillingCriminalsPunishmentStealingHorribleAbsurdAnarchyApologyDiminishAnarchismAnarchistCopingNatural LawCapital PunishmentScourgeStandstillCrime And Criminals
Book:Anarchism: Top Crime Collections
Create image

“Murder and capital punishment are not opposites that cancel one another, but similars that breed their kind. It is the deed that teaches not the name we give it.”

GivingKindDeathNamesPeaceTeachDyingOppositesMurderDeedsPunishmentUbuntuCapital PunishmentPeace JusticeMan And Superman
Book:George Bernard Shaw: Collected Articles, Lectures, Essays and Letters: Thoughts and Studies from the Renowned Dramaturge and Author of Mrs. Warren’s Profession, Pygmalion, Arms and The Man, Saint Joan, Caesar and Cleopatra, Androcles And The Lion
Create image

“Let us leave the EEC, abolish human rights laws, take TV sets, pool tables and phones out of prisons, bring back corporal and capital punishment, slash benefits and put single mothers into hostels instead of giving them council flats. Finally, if we chucked out all the illegal immigrants and asylum seekers there would be enough jobs for everyone.”

IfsGivingHumansEnoughWould BeJobsLawMotherRightsFootballTvsBenefitsTablesPrisonHuman RightsPhonesPunishmentImmigrantsFlatsIllegalPoolCouncilSeekersAbolishAsylumsCapital PunishmentIllegal ImmigrantsSingle MotherAsylum SeekersPool Table
Author:Ken Bates
Create image