Swift Justice Quotes

Terror is nothing other than justice, prompt, severe, inflexible; it is therefore an emanation of virtue.

My machine [the guillotine] will take off a head in a twinkling and the victim will feel nothing but a refreshing coolness. We cannot make too much haste, gentlemen, to allow the nation to enjoy this advantage.

There is no American right to loot stores, or to burn buildings, or to fire rifles from the rooftops. That is crime—and crime must be dealt with forcefully and swiftly, and certainly—under law.

Severities should be dealt out all at once, so that their suddenness may give less offense. Benefits ought to be handed out drop by drop, so that they may be relished the more.

Swift justice demands more than just swiftness.

Delay in vengeance delivers a heavier blow.

I support the death penalty because I believe, if administered swiftly and justly, capital punishment is a deterrent against future violence and will save other innocent lives.

The real answer to the problem of crime committed by persons on bail, and indeed the solution to the general problem of crime, lies not in preventive detention of individuals presumed innocent, but in the speedy trial of the accused and the swift and sure punishment of the guilty.

The administration of justice was swift and unvexed by nuance.

The great secrecy is speedy justice.

There are a lot of messages that need to be sent to the criminal who is out there dealing in this on the streets of the United States. We need to send the message of swiftness and certain punishment.

Public trials are very unsupervised and extremely swift and speak to the most primordial parts of us.

If there is wrong, you don't say we have to get rid of it gradually. If injustice exists, you need to eliminate it immediately.

If you want to know what to do with a thief that you may find stealing, I say kill him on the spot, and never suffer him to commit another iniquity. That is what I expect I shall do, though never, in the days of my life, have I hurt a man with the palm of my hand. I never have hurt any person any other way except with this unruly member, my tongue. Notwithstanding this, if I caught a man stealing on my premises I should be very apt to send him straight home, and that is what I wish every man to do, to put a stop to that abominable practice in the midst of this people. I know this appears hard, and throws a cold chill over our revered traditions received by early education. I had a great many such feelings to contend with myself, and was as much of a sectarian in my notions as any other man, and as mild, perhaps, in my natural disposition, but I have trained myself to measure things by the line of justice, to estimate them by the rule of equity and truth, and not by the false tradition of the fathers, or the sympathies of the natural mind. If you will cause all those whom you know to be thieves, to be placed in a line before the mouth of one of our largest cannon, well loaded with chain shot, I will prove by my works whether I can mete out justice to such persons, or not. I would consider it just as much my duty to do that, as to baptize a man for the remission of his sins. That is a short discourse on thieves, I acknowledge, but I tell you the truth as it is in my heart.

To be effective, judicial administration must not be leaden-footed.

Swift and powerful transition to the attack—the lightning sword of retribution — that is the most brilliant part of the defense.

Sometimes slow, steady effort is rewarded with justice that arrives like a thunderbolt.

Justice delayed has the same consequences as justice denied.