18 Cesare Beccaria Quotes for You to Enjoy

Cesare Beccaria

Italian Judge

Born: Mar 15, 1738

Died: Nov 28, 1794

Good Law Man Men Political Society

Related authors: Clarence Thomas John Roberts Maryanne Trump Barry Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. Ruth Bader Ginsburg Sonia Sotomayor Thurgood Marshall

No man can be judged a criminal until he is found guilty; nor can society take from him the public protection until it has been proved that he has violated the conditions on which it was granted. What right, then, but that of power, can authorize the punishment of a citizen so long as there remains any doubt of his guilt? Cesare Beccaria

Man Protection Guilt Citizen Long Power Doubt Society Criminal Guilty Punishment Has-Been Remains Take He Until Him Judged Proved Been His Nor Conditions Any Which Public Then Granted Found Right Violated

In every human society, there is an effort continually tending to confer on one part the height of power and happiness, and to reduce the other to the extreme of weakness and misery. The intent of good laws is to oppose this effort and to diffuse their influence universally and equally. Cesare Beccaria

Happiness Good Power Oppose Every Society Diffuse Other Extreme Weakness Laws Misery Tending Part Equally Reduce Continually Effort Intent Human Influence Height Human Society Universally

If someone were to say that life at hard labor is as painful as death and therefore equally cruel, I should reply that, taking all the unhappy moments of perpetual slavery together, it is perhaps even more painful, but these moments are spread out over a lifetime, and capital punishment exercises all its power in an instant. Cesare Beccaria

Life Death Together Unhappy Power Say Punishment Out Someone More Lifetime Cruel Instant Taking Over Perhaps Equally Exercises Spread Were Perpetual Labor Reply Capital Capital Punishment Should Hard Painful Moments Therefore Even Slavery

When the code of laws is once fixed, it should be observed in the literal sense, and nothing more is left to the judge than to determine whether an action is or is not conformable to the written law. Cesare Beccaria

Judge Law Sense Nothing Action Once Determine Laws More Written Written Law Observed Left Than Fixed Literal Whether Should Code

The moral and political principles that govern men are derived from three sources: revelation, natural law, and the artificial conventions of society. With regard to its main purpose, there is no comparison between the first and the others; but all three are alike in that they all lead towards happiness in this mortal life. Cesare Beccaria

Happiness Life Natural Law Political Men Three First Society Others Alike Moral Purpose Main Lead Mortal Towards Between Principles Revelation Govern Sources Artificial Regard Conventions Derived Comparison

Easy, simple and great laws, which await nothing but a sign from the lawgiver to spread prosperity and vigour throughout the nation, laws which would earn him immortal hymns of gratitude down the generations, are those which are least considered or least wanted. Cesare Beccaria

Great Gratitude Simple Prosperity Nation Nothing Down Earn Considered Those Sign Would Easy Immortal Laws Hymns Throughout Generations Him Least Spread Wanted Which Await Vigour

Philosophers see no harm in the Jesuits other than in their effect on humanity and the sciences. The vulgar and especially the prejudiced only hate them from an envy and jealousy born out of conspiracy and intrigue at an organisation which overshadows them. Cesare Beccaria

The lawgiver ought to be gentle, lenient and humane. The lawgiver ought to be a skilled architect who raises his building on the foundation of self-love, and the interest of all ought to be the product of the interests of each. Cesare Beccaria

Building Humane Ought Architect Gentle Self-Love His Interest Lenient Interests Skilled Product Who Each Foundation Raises

No man ever freely surrendered a portion of his own liberty for the sake of the public good; such a chimera appears only in fiction. If it were possible, we would each prefer that the pacts binding others did not bind us; every man sees himself as the centre of all the world's affairs. Cesare Beccaria

Good Man World Liberty Own Every Others Possible Would Only Sees Freely Himself Affairs Sake Were His Did Fiction Public Centre Prefer Us Public Good Each Appears Bind Binding Ever Portion Every Man

If there were an exact and universal scale of punishments and crimes, we would have a fairly reliable and shared instrument to measure the degree of tyranny and liberty, of the basic humanity or malice of the different nations. Cesare Beccaria

To the extent that human spirits are made gentle by the social state, sensibility increases; as it increases, the severity of punishment must diminish if one wishes to maintain a constant relation between object and feeling. Cesare Beccaria

Men's most superficial feelings lead them to prefer cruel laws. Nevertheless, when they are subjected to them themselves, it is in each man's interest that they be moderate, because the fear of being injured is greater than the desire to injure. Cesare Beccaria

Man Fear Men Feelings Superficial Laws Lead Cruel Nevertheless Most Greater Because Subjected Than Moderate Being Interest Prefer Them Themselves Each Injure Injured Desire

Happy are those few nations that have not waited till the slow succession of human vicissitudes should, from the extremity of evil, produce a transition to good; but by prudent laws have facilitated the progress from one to the other! Cesare Beccaria

Good Happy Progress Evil Slow Few Other Those Extremity Laws Till Waited Prudent Human Nations Transition Produce Should Succession

It is the task of theologians to establish the limits of justice and injustice regarding the intrinsic goodness or wickedness of an act; it is the task of the observer of public life to establish the relationships of political justice and injustice, that is, of what is useful or harmful to society. Cesare Beccaria

If we open our history books, we shall see that the laws, for all that they are or should be contracts amongst free men, have rarely been anything but the tools of the passions of a few men or the offspring of a fleeting and haphazard necessity. Cesare Beccaria

History Men Free Few Tools Our Books See Rarely Laws Shall Free Men Open Passions Been Contracts History Books Few Men Offspring Haphazard Anything Fleeting Should Amongst Necessity

It is impossible to anticipate all of the misdeeds engendered by the universal conflict of human passions. They multiply at a compound rate with the growth in population and the interlacing of particular interests that cannot be directed with geometrical precision towards the public utility. Cesare Beccaria

The laws receive their force and authority from an oath of fidelity, either tacit or expressed, which living subjects have sworn to their sovereign, in order to restrain the intestine fermentation of the private interest of individuals. Cesare Beccaria

Living Oath Restrain Tacit Laws Individuals Force Private Subjects Authority Sovereign Order Either Which Interest Fidelity Expressed Sworn Receive

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