“We may add that frequent punishments are always a sign of weakness or remissness on the part of the government.”
In a well-governed state, there are few punishments, not because there are many pardons, but because criminals are rare; it is when a state is in decay that the multitudes of crimes is a guarantee of impunity.
— Jean-Jacques Rousseau, The Social Contract (1762)
Words of the Sentient 