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Every instance of a man's suffering the penalty of the law is an instance of the failure of that penalty in effecting its purpose, which is to deter.

Richard Whately

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Richard Whately
Age: 76 †
Born: 1787
Born: February 1
Died: 1863
Died: October 8
Economist
Philosopher
Priest
Theologian
London
England
Law
Suffering
Effecting
Purpose
Deter
Every
Penalty
Men
Penalties
Instance
Prison
Failure

More quotes by Richard Whately

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Proverbs accordingly are somewhat analogous to those medical Formulas which, being in frequent use, are kept ready-made-up in the chemists’ shops, and which often save the framing of a distinct Prescription.
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It may be worth noticing as a curious circumstance, when persons past forty before they were at all acquainted form together a very close intimacy of friendship. For grafts of old wood to take, there must be a wonderful congeniality between the trees.
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It is the neglect of timely repair that makes rebuilding necessary.
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The happiest lot for a man, as far as birth is concerned, is that it should be such as to give him but little occasion to think much about it.
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It is also important to guard against mistaking for good-nature what is properly good-humor,--a cheerful flow of spirits and easy temper not readily annoyed, which is compatible with great selfishness.
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Of metaphors, those generally conduce most to energy or vivacity of style which illustrate an intellectual by a sensible object.
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Men are like sheep, of which a flock is more easily driven than a single one.
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Galileo probably would have escaped persecution if his discoveries could have been disproved.
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When a man says he wants to work, what he means is that he wants wages.
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Nothing but the right can ever be expedient, since that can never be true expediency which would sacrifice a great good to a less.
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Some persons follow the dictates of their conscience only in the same sense in which a coachman may be said to follow the horses he is driving.
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Lose an hour in the morning, and you will spend all day looking for it.
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Falsehood is difficult to be maintained. When the materials of a building are solid blocks of stone, very rude architecture will suffice but a structure of rotten materials needs the most careful adjustment to make it stand at all.
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Better too much form than too little.
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The word of knowledge, strictly employed, implies three things: truth, proof, and conviction.
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He only is exempt from failures who makes no efforts.
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Geologists complain that when they want specimens of the common rocks of a country, they receive curious spars just so, historians give us the extraordinary events and omit just what we want,--the every-day life of each particular time and country.
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In our judgment of human transactions, the law of optics is reversed, we see most dimly the objects which are close around us.
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Unless people can be kept in the dark, it is best for those who love the truth to give them the full light.
Richard Whately
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Manners are one of the greatest engines of influence ever given to man.
Richard Whately