Quotations and Literature Forum

Since I have been compared to the impulsive one.

Thanks,
Shawn


But thus do I cousel you, my friends,

DISTRUST all in whom the impulse

to punish is powerful

I believe this is a very small part of an argument, by Nietzsche, against capital punishment. I cannot give you the full context or the source which would explain it better if you can find it.

Possibly it argues on the lines of "who has the actual right to punish, is every man so blameless in themselves ?", but again this is only a guess on my part.

GT

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The most wasted of all days is one without laughter.
e e cummings (1894 - 1962)

The quote comes from Thus Spake Zarathustra, Chapter 29, and it is an argument all about justice and revenge.

You can read it in full context here:

http://www.davemckay.co.uk/philosophy/n ... n.part2.29

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Every man carries a circle of hell around his head like a halo. Every man, every man has to go through hell to reach his paradise.
Robert De Niro, Cape Fear

Thank you Romeo, that full context makes far more sense.

_________________
The most wasted of all days is one without laughter.
e e cummings (1894 - 1962)

It simply means that those who have a thirst for blood aught not to be trusted. For example, simply being for the death penalty does not represent a strong impulse to punish. What if the convict to be executed raped and murdered 30 people, and it was proven beyond all doubt that he did it, and he showed absolutely no remorse, and he was proven to be totally sane and was aware of his actions. This is obviously an extreme scenario, but it helps make a point - morals are not simply black and white; there is also a lot of gray. Personally, I would not find a desire to execute said criminal as a reason not to trust someone. Now consider the judge in the movie Sweeney Todd. He sentenced a small boy to death, after his second or third time appearing before the court, for some meaningless "crime". THAT is a strong impulse to punish. One must be able to differentiate between a sense of justice, and blood lust.