Experience supplies painful proof that traditions once called into being are first called useful, then they become necessary. At last they are too often made idols, and all must bow down to them or be punished.

Anger and the like are attributed to God on account of a similitude of effect. Thus, because to punish is properly the act of an angry man, God’s punishment is metaphorically spoken of as His anger

An avidity to punish is always dangerous to liberty. It leads men to stretch, to misinterpret, and to misapply even the best of law

If one wanted to crush and destroy a man entirely, to mete out to him the most terrible punishment, all one would have to do would be to make him do work that was completely and utterly devoid of usefulness and meaning.

Distrust all in whom the impulse to punish is powerful.

Old age, after all, is merely the punishment for having lived.

Solon being asked, namely, what city was best to live in. That city, he replied, in which those who are not wronged, no less than those who are wronged, exert themselves to punish the wrongdoers.

Punish the deed, not the breed.

Lost are we, and are only so far punished, That without hope we live on in desire.

Do you think that God will punish them for not practicing a religion which he did not reveal to them?

But there are people who’ll try to hurt you through the good they see in you–knowing that it’s the good, needing it and punishing you for it. Don’t let it break you when you discover that.

Many people, especially ignorant people, want to punish you for speaking the truth, for being correct, for being you.

I’ve got two daughters. 9 years old and 6 years old. I am going to teach them first of all about values and morals. But if they make a mistake, I don’t want them punished with a baby.

I don’t think my mother and father ever had any doubts about what I was to be punished for or not. My parents come from a very strictly defined culture.

The things we call rewards and punishments are simply the engines that move the machinery of a man’s behavior.

The usual justification for the socialization of punishment is that a wrong done to one man is a wrong done to all men collectively.

Vices are their own punishment

He who does not punish evil, commands it to be done.