"For centuries the death penalty, often accompanied..." - Quote by Albert Camus
For centuries the death penalty, often accompanied by barbarous refinements, has been trying to hold crime in check; yet crime persists. Why? Because the instincts that are warring in man are not, as the law claims, constant forces in a state of equilibrium.
More by Albert Camus
“But in order to speak about all and to all, one has to speak of what all know and of the reality common to us all. The seas, rains, necessity, desire, the struggle against death--these are things that unite us all. We resemble one another in what we see together, in what we suffer together. Dreams change from individual, but the reality of the world is common to us all. Striving towards realism is therefore legitimate, for it is basically related to the artistic adventure.”
“To stay or to go, it amounted to the same thing.”
“Do not wait for the Last Judgment. It takes place every day.”
More on Justice
“Ordinarily, a person leaving a courtroom with a conviction behind him would wear a somber face. But I left with a smile. I knew that I was a convicted criminal, but I was proud of my crime.”
“The human race cannot forever exist half-exploiters and half-exploited.”
“It is better to risk saving a guilty man than to condemn an innocent one.”
More on Death Penalty
“What says the law? You will not kill. How does it say it? By killing!”
“The death sentence is a barbaric act . . . It is a reflection of the animal instinct still in human beings.”
“What justice would there be to take this life? Justice, gentlemen? Why, I would just as soon put a hog in the electric chair as this.”