Philip Hone Quotes

Finally, with regard to actions manifestly bad or criminal, to which a person is forced through fear of some great evil, and especially death; we must lay down as a general rule, that the unhappy circumstances, under which a person labors, may indeed diminish the crime of a man unequal to this trial, who commits a bad action in spite of himself, and against his own inward conviction, yet the action remains intrinsically vicious, and worthy of censure; wherefore it may be, and actually is imputed, unless the exception of necessity can be alleged in the person's favor.

Every crime, even the most atrocious, may be justified.

Nothing of course was ever done to Bill for the killing of Tutt.

… murderer and peasant slayer

Crimes are not to be measured by the issue of events, but from the bad intentions of men.

Capt. Gordon is as responsible for the death of those on the Erie. As if he had taken the life of each by his own hand. For once, when no doubt exists as to guilt, a terrible example should be made.

I prefer a prison full of criminals than a graveyard full of innocent people.

Crime and punishment grow out of one stem.

For murder, though it have no tongue, will speak With most miraculous organ.

Punishment as punishment is not admissible unless the offender has had the freewill to select his course.

There is no den in the wide world to hide a rogue. Commit a crime, and the earth is made of glass. Commit a crime, and it seems as if a coat of snow fell on the ground, such as reveals in the woods the track of every partridge and fox and squirrel and mole.

If pimps and thieves everywhere were always punished, honest people would all believe themselves always to be innocent.

I think everybody who commits a violent killing is in some way crazy. But that doesn't mean we can let them off the hook for that.

You can always count on a murderer for a fancy prose style.

Under pressure, people admit to murder, setting fire to the village church or robbing a bank, but never to being bores.

If I was a bad character that got away with murder like we see on other shows, I do not think I would like it because that sends a message that you can do these horrible things and never pay for it.

Murder is unique in that it abolishes the party it injures, so that society has to take the place of the victim and on his behalf demand atonement or grant forgiveness; it is the one crime in which society has a direct interest.

The capture of Saddam Hussein has proven to the bad ones, to the guilty ones, to the sinful ones that they cannot run forever. Sooner or later, the other criminals will also be found from their hideouts.

Successful crimes alone are justified.

You wont hear anything from me that says I didn't kill David. I did kill him.

I don't want to put one innocent person to death to put 99 that are guilty to death. So philosophically I'm a tooth-for-tooth guy, but the reality is the death penalty as public policy is flawed.

I love criminal law. It must be the Dostoyevskian streak in me. I'm fascinated by the accumulation of forces that make people behave in ways that everybody else hates.

It's better to choose the culprits than to seek them out.

It is the crime not the scaffold which is the disgrace.

He has committed the crime who profits by it.