In its function, the power to punish is not essentially different from that of curing or educating.
—Michel Foucault, 1975The more religious a country is, the more crimes are committed in it.
—Napoleon Bonaparte, 1817Man punishes the action, but God the intention.
—Thomas Fuller, 1732Our crime against criminals is that we treat them as villains.
—Friedrich Nietzsche, 1898What man was ever content with one crime?
—Juvenal, c. 125I'm all for bringing back the birch, but only between consenting adults.
—Gore Vidal, 1973A crowded police court docket is the surest sign that trade is brisk and money plenty.
—Mark Twain, 1872The land is full of bloody crimes, and the city is full of violence.
—The BibleThe criminal is the creative artist; the detective only the critic.
—G.K. Chesterton, 1911There is no crime without precedent.
—Seneca the Younger, c. 60Punishment is a sort of medicine.
—Aristotle, c. 340 BCNo punishment has ever possessed enough power of deterrence to prevent the commission of crimes.
—Hannah Arendt, 1963After all, crime is only a left-handed form of human endeavor.
—John Huston, 1950To live outside the law you must be honest.
—Bob Dylan, 1966I’ve got some shit I’m conservative about and some shit I’m liberal about. Crime—I’m conservative. Prostitution—I’m liberal.
—Chris Rock, 2008Two crimes undid me: a poem and a mistake.
—Ovid, 10