Sayings about Punishment
The punishment of a liar is that he is never believed, even when he speaks the truth. ~ Hebrew Proverb
A sin of gold is followed by a punishment of lead. ~ Russian Proverb
Great thieves punish little ones. ~ Traditional Proverb
God wanted to punish mankind, so he created lawyers. ~ Russian Proverbs
He who does not punish evil invites it. ~ German Proverbs
Look not at thieves eating meat, but look at them suffering punishment. ~ Chinese Proverb
Laws without punishment are like bells with no clackers. ~ Czech Proverbs
Punishment is a cripple, but it arrives. ~ Spanish Proverbs
It is cruelty to the innocent not to punish the guilty. ~ Syrian Proverbs
When God wants to punish an idiot, He teaches them a few words of Hebrew. ~ Yiddish Proverbs
Two things rule the world — reward and punishment. ~ Bosnian Proverbs
If your buttocks burn, you know you have done wrong. ~ South African Proverb
When God punishes a land, he deprives it’s leaders of wisdom. ~ Italian Proverbs
You will never be punished for making people die of laughter. ~ Chinese Proverb
Law cannot persuade when it cannot punish. ~ Traditional Proverb
The enemy’s own punishment is his envy. ~ Indian Proverbs
Every sin brings its punishment with it. ~ Romanian Proverbs
When God punishes a land, he deprives it leaders of wisdom. ~ Italian Proverb
What a man suffers is the punishment of his tongue. ~ Turkish Proverbs
To punish a student, use a shoe lace. ~ Hebrew Proverb
That fear may reach all, punish but few. ~ Traditional Proverb
Undeserved punishment is better than that which is deserved. ~ Indian Proverb
Quotations about Punishment
It is less to suffer punishment than to deserve it. ~ Ovid
Capital punishment is as fundamentally wrong as a cure for crime as charity is wrong as a cure for poverty. ~ Henry Ford
Let the punishment be equal with the offence. ~ Cicero
The idea that the sole aim of punishment is to prevent crime is obviously grounded upon the theory that crime can be prevented, which is almost as dubious as the notion that poverty can be prevented. ~ Henry Louis Mencken
Distrust everyone in whom the impulse to punish is powerful! ~ Friedrich Nietzsche
Punishment is a fruit that, unsuspected, ripens within the flower of the pleasure that concealed it. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
Prisons don’t rehabilitate, they don’t punish, they don’t protect, so what the hell do they do? ~ Jerry Brown
Many without punishment, none without sin. ~ John Ray
The time that precedes punishment is the severest part of it. ~ Seneca
Capital punishment would be more effective as a preventive measure if it were administered prior to the crime. ~ Woody Allen
A variety in punishment is of utility, as well as a proportion. ~ George Washington
The punishment of criminals should be of use; when a man is hanged he is good for nothing. ~ Voltaire
It is as expedient that a wicked man be punished as that a sick man be cured by a physician; for all chastisement is a kind of medicine. ~ Plato
I hear much of people’s calling out to punish the guilty, but very few are concerned to clear the innocent. ~ Daniel Defoe
There is no person so severely punished, as those who subject themselves to the whip of their own remorse. ~ Marcus Annaeus Seneca
If punishment reaches not the mind and makes not the will supple, it hardens the offender. ~ John Locke
Faults of the head are punished in this world, those of the heart in another; but as most of our vices are compound, so also is their punishment. ~ Charles Caleb Colton
Let those who have deserved their punishment, bear it patiently. ~ Ovid
There is no greater punishment of wickedness that that it is dissatisfied with itself and its deeds. ~ Seneca
Well, there’s no one at all, they do be saying, but is deserving of some punishment from the very minute of his birth. ~ Lady Gregory
Punishment follows close on crime. ~ Horace
I should be very willing to redress men wrongs, and rather check than punish crimes, had not Cervantes, in that all too true tale of Quixote, shown how all such efforts fail. ~ Lord Byron
Punishment is justice for the unjust. ~ St. Augustine
Punishment is the last and the least effective instrument in the hands of the legislator for the prevention of crime. ~ John Ruskin
If punishment makes not the will supple it hardens the offender. ~John Locke
And Cain said unto the Lord, My punishment is greater than I can bear. ~ Bible
The public have more interest in the punishment of an injury than he who receives it. ~ Cato
The work of eradicating crimes is not by making punishment familiar, but formidable. ~ Oliver Goldsmith
The sins committed by many pass unpunished. ~ Lucanus
Punishment, that is the justice for the unjust. ~ Saint Aurelius Augustine
The power of punishment is to silence, not to confute. ~ Samuel Johnson
If he who breaks the law is not punished, he who obeys it is cheated. . ~ Thomas Szasz
Don’t let us rejoice in punishment, even when the hand of God alone inflicts it. The best of us are but poor wretches, just saved from shipwreck. Can we feel anything but awe and pity when we see a fellow-passenger swallowed by the waves? ~ George Eliot
Corporal punishment is as humiliating for him who gives it as for him who receives it; it is ineffective besides. Neither shame nor physical pain have any other effect than a hardening one. ~ Ellen Key
Care should be taken that the punishment does not exceed the guilt; and also that some men do not suffer for offenses for which others are not even indicted. ~ Cicero
There is no greater punishment than that of being abandoned to one’s self. ~ Pasquier Quesnel
If the people be led by laws, and uniformity sought to be given them by punishments, they will try to avoid the punishment, but have no sense of shame. ~ Confucius
Though punishment be slow, still it comes. ~ George Herbert
Even legal punishments lose all appearance of justice, when too strictly inflicted on men compelled by the last extremity of distress to incur them. ~ Junius
In its function, the power to punish is not essentially different from that of curing or educating. ~ Michel Foucault
Punishment is not for revenge, but to lessen crime and reform the criminal. ~ Elizabeth Fry
The first and greatest punishment of the sinner is the conscience of sin. ~ Marcus Annaeus Seneca
The severest punishment a man can receive who has injured another, is to have committed the injury; and no man is more severely punished than he who is subject to the whip of his own repentance. ~ Seneca
Every great example of punishment has in it some injustice, but the suffering individual is compensated by the public good. ~ Tacitus
The object of punishment is, prevention from evil; it never can be made impulsive to good. ~ Horace Mann
Let the punishment be proportionate to the offense. ~ Marcus T. Cicero
God is on the side of virtue; for whoever dreads punishment suffers it, and whoever deserves it, dreads it . ~ Charles Caleb Colton
To make punishments efficacious, two things are necessary. They must never be disproportioned to the offence, and they must be certain. ~ William Gilmore Simms
Corporeal punishment falls far more heavily than most weighty pecuniary penalty. ~ Seneca
The refined punishments of the spiritual mode are usually much more indecent and dangerous than a good smack. ~ David Herbert Lawrence
Crime and punishment grow out of one stem. Punishment is a fruit that, unsuspected, ripens within the flower of the pleasure that concealed it. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
One man meets an infamous punishment for that crime which confers a diadem upon another. ~ Juvenal
Nations like individuals are subjected to punishments and chastisements in this world. ~Abraham Lincoln
If we escape punishment for our vices, why should we complain if we are not rewarded for our virtues? ~ John Churton Collins
Caught in Providence: The Breakfast Verdict. ~ External video link
