On the record
If it were left to the king to fix the punishment, he might often have motives to inflict cruel and oppressive ones.
Said by
Lysander Spooner
Source
gutenberg.orgLysander Spooner: “If it were left to the king to fix the punishment, he might often have motives to inflict cruel and oppressive ones.”
Editor's note · Context
Spooner warns that if the king were to set punishments, he might have incentives to be cruel and oppressive.
Share
More from Lysander Spooner
They do not tell us of the almshouses, hospitals, schools, churches, etc., which, out of the purest charity and benevolence, they maintain for our benefit, out of the money they take from us.
They do not attempt to deceive us, or mislead us, or reconcile us to their doings, by any such pretences, impostures, or insults as these.
They do not tell us that we are the freest and happiest people on earth, inasmuch as each of our male adults is allowed one voice in ten millions in the choice of the men, who are to rob, enslave, and murder us.
They do not tell us that all liberty and order would be destroyed, that society itself would go to pieces, and man go back to barbarism, if it were not for the care, and supervision, and protection, they lavish upon us.