For a punishment to be just it should consist of only such gradations of intensity as suffice to deter men from committing crimes.

Crimes are more effectually prevented by the certainty than the severity of punishment

It is better to prevent crimes than to punish them.

The punishment of death is the war of a nation against a citizen whose destruction it judges to be necessary or useful.

Laws against the possession of weapons only disarm those who have no intention of committing a crime.

The fault no child ever loses is the one he was most punished for.

Happy is the nation without a history.

The laws that forbid the carrying of arms... serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man.

happy is the nation without a history

The greatest happiness of the greatest number.

I myself owe everything to French books. They developed in my soul the sentiments of humanity which had been stifled by eight years of fanatical and servile education.

That is the mystery about writing: it comes out of afflictions, out of the gouged times, when the heart is cut open.

You'll come to learn a great deal if you study the Insignificant in depth

The hard truth is carbon pollution has built up in our atmosphere for decades now. And even if we Americans do our part, the planet will slowly keep warming for some time to come.

You were given life; it is your duty (and also your entitlement as a human being) to find something beautiful within life, no matter how slight.

There was a point where I really felt I had 'penniless divorcee lone parent' tattooed on my head.

If you don't have the gift of a loving supportive family, be that gift for someone else. It doesn't have to be a relative, just someone you know who is alone or hurting over the holiday.

Authenticity is about where it comes from; validity is about whether it works.

Mandy is not calm. So that's acting. I'm acting. And, and I love playing someone calm.

You know, most people really don't know me.

The Palestinians must be made to understand in the deepest recesses of their consciousness that they are a defeated people.