Cesare Beccaria

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

“The true measure of crimes is the injury done to society.”

“The intent of punishments is not to torment a sentient being, nor to undo a crime already committed.”

“The punishment of death is the war of a nation against a citizen, whose destruction it judges necessary, or useful to the general good.”

“No man can be judged a criminal until he be found guilty; nor can society take from him the public protection until it have been proved that he has violated the conditions on which it was granted.”

“The murder that is depicted as a horrible crime is repeated in cold blood, remorselessly.”

“It is better to prevent crimes than to punish them.”

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

“The greatest happiness of the greatest number is the foundation of morals and legislation.”

“The laws are the conditions under which men, naturally independent, united themselves in society.”

“There is no liberty, if the judiciary power be not separated from the legislative and executive.”

“Happy is the nation without a history.”

“The more immediately after the commission of a crime a punishment is inflicted the more just and useful it will be.”

“In order that punishment should not be an act of violence perpetrated by one or many upon a private citizen, it is essential that it should be public, speedy, necessary, the minimum possible in the given circumstances, proportionate to the crime, and determined by the law.”