Herman Melville Quotes

To punish a man because he has committed a crime, or because he is believed, though unjustly, to have committed a crime, is not persecution. To punish a man, because we infer from the nature of some doctrine which he holds, or from the conduct of other persons who hold the same doctrines with him, that he will commit a crime, is persecution, and is, in every case, foolish and wicked.

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

The crime and not the scaffold makes the shame.

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

You have been tried by twelve good men and true, not of your peers but as high above you as heaven is of hell, and they have said you are guilty. Time will pass and seasons will come and go. Spring with its waving green grass and heaps of sweet-smelling flowers on every hill and in every dale. Then sultry Summer, with her shimmering heat-waves on the baked horizon. And Fall, with her yeller harvest moon and the hills growing brown and golden under a sinking sun. And finally Winter, with its biting, whining wind, and all the land will be mantled with snow. But you won't be here to see any of 'em; not by a damn sight, because it's the order of this court that you be took to the nearest tree and hanged by the neck till you're dead, dead, dead, you olive-colored son of a billy goat.

A murder is not a martyr. He or she is just a murderer.

Mercy to the guilty is cruelty to the innocent.

All judges had rather that ten innocent should suffer than that one guilty should escape

From this window we see the palace where the King is misled by perfidious counsels. Terror and fear have often issued from yon palace: let them return to-day in the name of the law, and let all those who inhabit that palace know that the King is alone inviolable, that the law will strike down the guilty without respect of persons, and that there is not a guilty head which can escape its sword.

Innocence does not find near so much protection as guilt.

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

Isn't all mankind ultimately executed for a crime it never committed?

He who wrongs the innocent must bear the fruit of his act, like dust flung against the wind.

To spare the guilty is to injure the innocent.

Do not be merciful, but be just, for mercy is bestowed upon the guilty criminal, while Justice is all that the innocent man requires.

Murder will out, this my conclusion.

To admit guilt for nonexistent crimes is unacceptable to me.

I have been used for a purpose, and there will be a certain tragic occurrence happening if you don't take my testimony and somehow vindicate me so my people don't suffer because of what I have done.

I am innocent of the blood of this just person; see ye to it.

Fear follows crime and is its punishment.

No court presumes to tell a jury that they are to try a capital case with the same indifference and unconcern as to consequences, that they would a case where the results of their decision would be less important.

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.

Character is always known. Thefts never enrich; alms never impoverish; murder will speak out of stone walls.

To have the truth in your possession you can be found guilty, sentenced to death.

I hear they burn for murder. Well, they say it just takes a second to die.