Quotes about State Sanctioned

Cesare Beccaria

The punishment of death is pernicious to society, from the example of barbarity it affords. If the passions, or the necessity of war, have taught men to shed the blood of their fellow creatures, the laws, which are intended to moderate the ferocity of mankind, should not increase it by examples of barbarity, the more horrible as this punishment is usually attended with formal pageantry. Is it not absurd, that the laws, which detest and punish homicide, should, in order to prevent murder, publicly commit murder themselves?

This document was the first organized argument against capital punishment.

Mona Eltahawy

12 year-old girls dying in childbirth do little to stem the tide of child marriage there [Yemen]. Instead, demonstrations in support of child marriage outstrip those against it, fueled by clerical declarations that opponents of state-sanctioned pedophilia are apostates because the Prophet Mohammed, according to them, married his second wife, Aisha, when she was a child.

Physiologically a very young girl is often capable of getting pregnant, but physiologically is not able to bear children without high risk to both children. A similar risk pattern exists with women over the age of 40. While there are a number of Islamic countries that do sanction pedophilia within marriage, there is nothing inherent in Islamic theology that justifies this. Modern Islamic nations like Turkey and other Muslim majority nations do not allow marriage at such a young age. Also, it was not to long ago, in historical time, that Christian nations also sanctioned marriage to very young girls.

Joseph Lowery

It's interesting to me that killing damages the image of God when it's done by a person, but it doesn't damage it when it's done by the state.

George Bernard Shaw

Assasination on the scaffold is the worst form of assasination, because there it is invested with the approval of society.

Mario Cuomo

I believe the death penalty demeans the values that form the core of American life.... Capital punishment is a terrible concession, a desperate response that substitutes one evil for another.... There is a better response to killing than killing.

Aurangzeb

The houses of this country (Maharashtra) are exceedingly strong and built solely of stone and iron. The hatchet-men of the Govt. in the course of my marching do not get sufficient strength and power (i.e. time) TO DESTROY AND RAZE THE TEMPLES OF THE INFIDELS that meet the eye on the way. You should appoint an orthodox inspector (darogha) who may afterwards DESTROY THEM AT LEISURE AND DIG UP THEIR FOUNDATIONS

Cyprian

Murder, considered a crime when people commit it singly, is transformed into a virtue when they do it en masse.

Elbert Hubbard

Destruction, violence, ravages, murder, are perpetrated by statute law.

State Sanctioned Quotes