The argument that capital punishment degrades the state is moonshine, …

H. L. Mencken
520 citations
The argument that capital punishment degrades the state is moonshine, for if that were true then it would degrade the state to send men to war... The state, in truth, is degraded in its very nature: a few butcheries cannot do it any further damage.
Politics Truth
24

More Author Quotes

Hanging one scoundrel, it appears, does not deter the next. Well, what of it? The first one is at least disposed of.
The truth is . . . that the great artists of the world are never puritans, and seldom ever ordinarily respectable. No virtuous man - that is, virtuous in the YMCA sense - has ever painted a picture w … ▶
A bad man is the sort who weeps every time he speaks of a good woman.
I've made it a rule never to drink by daylight and never to refuse a drink after dark. ✨ New York Post 18 Sept. 1945
Faith may be defined briefly as an illogical belief in the occurrence of the improbable.... A man full of faith is simply one who has lost (or never had) the capacity for clear and realistic thought. … ▶

The argument that capital punishment degrades the state is moonshine, for if that were true then it would degrade the state to send men to war... The state, in truth, is degraded in its very nature: a few butcheries cannot do it any further damage.

More Author Quotes

Most Cited Authors

The Best Quotes

Most Liked Authors

Curated Author Quotes