Ralph Waldo Emerson Quotes
The intelligent have a right over the ignorant, namely, the right of instructing them. The right punishment of one out of tune, isto make him play in tune; the fine which the good, refusing to govern, ought to pay, is, to be governed by a worse man; that his guards shall not handle gold and silver, but shall be instructed that there is gold and silver in their souls, which will make men willing to give them every thing which they need.
Emerson, Ralph Waldo. "Plato; or, the Philosopher." Representative Men: Seven Lectures. Phillips, Sampson and Company, 1850, p. 77.
Muir was tried and convicted for sedition for his speech, and at his trial in August 1793 he repeated the quotation claiming that it was not seditious. He was advocating extending the vote to male, non-land owners. See Robert MacQueen Braxfield.
There are a number of reasons for punishing someone for violating a law. Confucius argues that when the person will no longer continue to commit the crime, further punishment is uncalled for. However, others would argue that there are other reasons to keep punishing a person including retribution / vengeance, incapacitation (people can’t commit crimes if they are in jail), and prevention (make an example to discourage others).
Ralph Waldo Emerson, who went by his middle name Waldo, was an American essayist, lecturer, philosopher, abolitionist and poet who led the transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century. He was seen as a champion of individualism and a prescient critic of the countervailing pressures of society, and he disseminated his thoughts through dozens of published essays and more than 1,500 public lectures across the United States.
