Political Quotes

Edmund Burke: The sense of justice in men is overloaded and fatigued with a long series of executions, or with such a carnage at once…

On the record
The sense of justice in men is overloaded and fatigued with a long series of executions, or with such a carnage at once as rather resembles a massacre than a sober execution of the laws.
Said by
Edmund Burke

Editor's note · Context

Burke argues that a high number of executions diminishes the law's deterrent effect on both the wicked and the virtuous.

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