Beccaria Quotes

Crimes are more effectually prevented by the certainty than the severity of punishment

happy is the nation without a history

The murder that is depicted as a horrible crime is repeated in cold blood, remorselessly.

False is the idea of utility that sacrifices a thousand real advantages for one imaginary or trifling inconvenience; that would take fire from men because it burns, and water because one may drown in it; that it has no remedy for evils, except destruction. The laws that forbid the carrying of arms are of such a nature. Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man.

  Every punishment which does not arise from absolute necessity, says the great Montesquieu, is tyrannical. A proposition which may be made more general thus: every act of authority of one man over another, for which there is not an absolute necessity, is tyrannical.

For every crime that comes before him, a judge is required to complete a perfect syllogism in which the major premise must be the general law; the minor, the action that conforms or does not conform to the law; and the conclusion, acquittal or punishment. If the judge were constrained, or if he desired to frame even a single additional syllogism, the door would thereby be opened to uncertainty.

It is a considerable point in all good legislation to determine exactly the credibility of witnesses and the proofs of a crime. Every reasonable man, everyone, that is, whose ideas have a certain interconnection and whose feelings accord with those of other men, may be a witness. The true measure of his credibility is nothing other than his interest in telling or not telling the truth; for this reason it is frivolous to insist that women are too weak [to be good witnesses], childish to insist that civil death in a condemned man has the same effects as a real death, and meaningless to insist on the infamy of the infamous, when they have no interest in lying.

Lo que ocurre con los actos que se reprimen es que, tarde o temprano, salen de golpe cuando menos lo esperamos. Y salen de la peor manera, aumentados, desaforados, para luego hacernos sentir la más terrible de las vergüenzas.

In fact, when the scaffold is there, all erected and prepared, it has something about it which produces hallucination. One may feel a certain indifference to the death penalty, one may refrain from pronouncing upon it, from saying yes or no, so long as one has not seen a guillotine with one's own eyes: but if one encounters one of them, the shock is violent; one is forced to decide, and to take part for or against. Some admire it, like de Maistre; others execrate it, like Beccaria. The guillotine is the concretion of the law; it is called vindicte; it is not neutral, and it does not permit you to remain neutral. He who sees it shivers with the most mysterious of shivers. All social problems erect their interrogation point around this chopping-knife. The scaffold is a vision. The scaffold is not a piece of carpentry; the scaffold is not a machine; the scaffold is not an inert bit of mechanism constructed of wood, iron and cords. It

Where are your free and compulsory schools? Does every one know how to read in the land of Dante and of Michael Angelo? Have you made public schools of your barracks? Have you not, like ourselves, an opulent war-budget and a paltry budget of education? Have not you also that passive obedience which is so easily converted into soldierly obedience? military establishment which pushes the regulations to the extreme of firing upon Garibaldi; that is to say, upon the living honor of Italy? Let us subject your social order to examination, let us take it where it stands and as it stands, let us view its flagrant offences, show me the woman and the child. It is by the amount of protection with which these two feeble creatures are surrounded that the degree of civilization is to be measured. Is prostitution less heartrending in Naples than in Paris? What is the amount of justice springs from your tribunals? Do you chance to be so fortunate as to be ignorant of the meaning of those gloomy words: public prosecution, legal infamy, prison, the scaffold, the executioner, the death penalty? Italians, with you as with us, Beccaria is dead and Farinace is alive. And then, let us scrutinize your state reasons. Have you a government which comprehends the identity of morality and politics? You have reached the point where you grant amnesty to heroes! Something very similar has been done in France. Stay, let us pass miseries in review, let each one contribute in his pile, you are as rich as we. Have you not, like ourselves, two condemnations, religious condemnation pronounced by the priest, and social condemnation decreed by the judge? Oh, great nation of Italy, thou resemblest the great nation of France! Alas! our brothers, you are, like ourselves, Misérables.

When a fixed code of laws, which must be observed to the letter, leaves no further care to the judge than to examine the acts of citizens and to decide whether or not they conform to the law as written; then the standard of the just or the unjust, which is to be the norm of conduct for the ignorant as well as for the philosophic citizen, is not a matter of controversy but of fact; then only are citizens not subject to the petty tyrannies of the many which are the more cruel as the distance between the oppressed and the oppressor is less, and which are far more fatal than those of a single man, for the despotism of many can only be corrected by the despotism of one; the cruelty of a single despot is proportioned, not to his might, but to the obstacles he encounters.

Eğer toplum düzenini aynı derecede sarsmayan/ihlal etmeyen iki suça aynı ceza verilirse, insanlar en ağır suçu işlemekte bir sakınca görmeyecekler ve bu konuda çok zor bir engelle de karşılaşmayacaklardır.

Parmi un assurdo che le leggi, che sono l'espressione della pubblica volontà, che detestano e puniscono l'omicidio, ne commettono uno esse medesime, e, per allontanare i cittadini dall'assassinio, ordinino un pubblico assassinio.

Perché ogni pena non sia una violenza di uno o di molti contro un privato cittadino, dev'essere essenzialmente pubblica, pronta, necessaria, la minima delle possibili nelle date circostanze, proporzionata a' delitti, dettata dalle leggi.

  If every individual be bound to society, society is equally bound to him, by a contract which from its nature equally binds both parties. This obligation, which descends from the throne to the cottage, and equally binds the highest and lowest of mankind, signifies nothing more than that it is the interest of all, that conventions, which are useful to the greatest number, should be punctually observed. The violation of this compact by any individual is an introduction to anarchy.

In order that punishment should not be an act of violence perpetrated by one or many upon a private citizen, it is essential that it should be public, speedy, necessary, the minimum possible in the given circumstances, and determined by the law.

Quanto maggiore sarà il numero di quelli che intenderanno e avranno fralle mani il sacro codice delle leggi, tanto meno frequenti saranno i delitti, perché non v’ha dubbio che l’ignoranza e l’incertezza delle pene aiutino l’eloquenza delle passioni.

Tu viens d'incendier la Bibliothèque ? - Oui. J'ai mis le feu là. - Mais c'est un crime inouï ! Crime commis par toi contre toi-même, infâme ! Mais tu viens de tuer le rayon de ton âme ! C'est ton propre flambeau que tu viens de souffler ! Ce que ta rage impie et folle ose brûler, C'est ton bien, ton trésor, ta dot, ton héritage Le livre, hostile au maître, est à ton avantage. Le livre a toujours pris fait et cause pour toi. Une bibliothèque est un acte de foi Des générations ténébreuses encore Qui rendent dans la nuit témoignage à l'aurore. Quoi! dans ce vénérable amas des vérités, Dans ces chefs-d'oeuvre pleins de foudre et de clartés, Dans ce tombeau des temps devenu répertoire, Dans les siècles, dans l'homme antique, dans l'histoire, Dans le passé, leçon qu'épelle l'avenir, Dans ce qui commença pour ne jamais finir, Dans les poètes! quoi, dans ce gouffre des bibles, Dans le divin monceau des Eschyles terribles, Des Homères, des jobs, debout sur l'horizon, Dans Molière, Voltaire et Kant, dans la raison, Tu jettes, misérable, une torche enflammée ! De tout l'esprit humain tu fais de la fumée ! As-tu donc oublié que ton libérateur, C'est le livre ? Le livre est là sur la hauteur; Il luit; parce qu'il brille et qu'il les illumine, Il détruit l'échafaud, la guerre, la famine Il parle, plus d'esclave et plus de paria. Ouvre un livre. Platon, Milton, Beccaria. Lis ces prophètes, Dante, ou Shakespeare, ou Corneille L'âme immense qu'ils ont en eux, en toi s'éveille ; Ébloui, tu te sens le même homme qu'eux tous ; Tu deviens en lisant grave, pensif et doux ; Tu sens dans ton esprit tous ces grands hommes croître, Ils t'enseignent ainsi que l'aube éclaire un cloître À mesure qu'il plonge en ton coeur plus avant, Leur chaud rayon t'apaise et te fait plus vivant ; Ton âme interrogée est prête à leur répondre ; Tu te reconnais bon, puis meilleur; tu sens fondre, Comme la neige au feu, ton orgueil, tes fureurs, Le mal, les préjugés, les rois, les empereurs ! Car la science en l'homme arrive la première. Puis vient la liberté. Toute cette lumière, C'est à toi comprends donc, et c'est toi qui l'éteins ! Les buts rêvés par toi sont par le livre atteints. Le livre en ta pensée entre, il défait en elle Les liens que l'erreur à la vérité mêle, Car toute conscience est un noeud gordien. Il est ton médecin, ton guide, ton gardien. Ta haine, il la guérit ; ta démence, il te l'ôte. Voilà ce que tu perds, hélas, et par ta faute ! Le livre est ta richesse à toi ! c'est le savoir, Le droit, la vérité, la vertu, le devoir, Le progrès, la raison dissipant tout délire. Et tu détruis cela, toi ! - Je ne sais pas lire.

This harkens back to the eighteenth-century philosopher and reformer Cesare Beccaria, whose 1764 work On Crimes and Punishments—a high-water mark of the Italian Enlightenment—launched the movement to apply rational principles to criminal reform, such as adjusting the punishments to fit the crimes (proportionality) instead of, as was the custom of the day, the death penalty for such offenses as poaching, counterfeiting, theft, sodomy, bestiality, adultery, horse theft, being in the company of Gypsies, and two hundred other crimes and misdemeanors.

À medida que as penas forem mais brandas, quando as prisões já não forem a horrível mansão do desespero e da fome, quando a piedade e a humanidade penetrarem nas masmorras, quando enfim os executores impiedosos dos rigores da justiça abrirem os corações à compaixão, as leis poderão contentar-se com indícios mais fracos para ordenar a prisão.

Com efeito, no caso de um delito, há duas partes: o soberano, que afirma que o contrato social foi violado, e o acusado, que nega essa violação. É preciso, pois, que haja entre ambos um terceiro que decida a contestação. Esse terceiro é o magistrado, cujas sentenças devem ser sem apelo e que deve simplesmente pronunciar se há um delito ou se não há.

In realtà il patibolo, quando è lì, drizzato, ha alcunché d'allucinante. Si può avere una certa indifferenza a proposito della pena di morte, non pronunciarsi, dire di sì e no, fino a quando non si è visto coi propri occhi una ghigliottina; ma se avviene d'incontrarne una, la scossa è violenta e bisogna decidersi a prendere partito pro o contro di essa. Taluni, come il De Maistre, ammirano; altri, come il Beccaria, esecrano. La ghigliottina concreta la legge: si chiama vendetta, ma non è neutra e non vi permette di restar neutro. Chi la scorge freme del più misterioso dei fremiti. Tutte le questioni sociali drizzano intorno alla mannaia il loro punto interrogativo. Il patibolo è una visione; ma non è una costruzione, ma non è una macchina, ma non è un inerte meccanismo fatto di legno, di ferro e di corde. Sembra ch'esso sia una specie d'essere con non so qual cupa iniziativa; si direbbe che quella costruzione veda, che quella macchina senta, che quel meccanismo capisca, che quel legno, quel ferro e quelle corde vogliano. Nella spaventosa fantasticheria in cui la sua presenza getta l'anima, il patibolo appare terribile e sembra partecipe di quello che fa. È il complice del carnefice: divora, mangia la carne, beve il sangue. Il patibolo è una specie di mostro fabbricato dal giudice e dal falegname, uno spettro che sembra vivere d'una specie di vita spaventevole, fatta di tutta la morte che ha dato.

C'est le malheur de l'esprit humain que les choses les plus lointaines et les moins importantes, telles que les révolutions des corps célestes, lui soient les plus présentes et les mieux connues, alors que les notions morales, toutes proches et de la plus haute importance, restent toujours flottantes et confuses, au gré du souffle des passions qui les pousse, ou de l'ignorance dirigée qui les reçoit et les transmet.

Punishment had gradually ceased to be a spectacle. And whatever theatrical elements it still retained were now downgraded, as if the functions of the penal ceremony were gradually ceasing to be understood, as if this rite that ‘concluded the crime’ was suspected of being in some undesirable way linked with it. It was as if the punishment was thought to equal, if not to exceed, in savagery the crime itself, to accustom the spectators to a ferocity from which one wished to divert them, to show them the frequency of crime, to make the executioner resemble a criminal, judges murderers, to reverse roles at the last moment, to make the tortured criminal an object of pity or admiration. As early as 1764, Beccaria remarked: ‘The murder that is depicted as a horrible crime is repeated in cold blood, remorselessly’ (Beccaria, 101). The public execution is now seen as a hearth in which violence bursts again into flame.

In fact, when the scaffold is there, all erected and prepared, it has something about it which produces hallucination. One may feel a certain indifference to the death penalty, one may refrain from pronouncing upon it, from saying yes or no, so long as one has not seen a guillotine with one's own eyes: but if one encounters one of them, the shock is violent; one is forced to decide, and to take part for or against. Some admire it, like de Maistre; others execrate it, like Beccaria. The guillotine is the concretion of the law; it is called vindicte; it is not neutral, and it does not permit you to remain neutral. He who sees it shivers with the most mysterious of shivers. All social problems erect their interrogation point around this chopping-knife. The scaffold is a vision. The scaffold is not a piece of carpentry; the scaffold is not a machine; the scaffold is not an inert bit of mechanism constructed of wood, iron and cords. It seems as though it were a being, possessed of I know not what sombre initiative; one would say that this piece of carpenter's work saw, that this machine heard, that this mechanism understood, that this wood, this iron, and these cords were possessed of will. In the frightful meditation into which its presence casts the soul the scaffold appears in terrible guise, and as though taking part in what is going on. The scaffold is the accomplice of

Para el obispo, la vista de la guillotina fue un golpe terrible del cual tardó mucho tiempo en reponerse. En efecto: el patíbulo, cuando está ante nuestros ojos levantado, derecho, tiene algo que alucina. Se puede sentir cierta indiferencia hacia la pena de muerte, no pronunciarse ni en pro ni en contra, no decir ni sí ni que no mientras no se ha visto una guillotina; pero si se llega a ver una, la sacudida es violenta; es menester decidirse y tomar partido en pro o en contra de ella. Los unos admiran, como De Maistre; los otros execran, como Beccaria. La guillotina es la concreción de la ley: se llama 'vindicta'; no es indiferente ni os permite que lo seáis tampoco. Quien llega a verla se estremece con el más misterioso de los estremecimientos. Todas las cuestiones sociales alzan sus interrogantes en torno de aquella cuchilla. El cadalso es una visión: no es un tablado ni una máquina, ni un mecanismo frío de madera, de hierro y de cuerdas. Parece que es una especie de ser que tiene no sé qué sombría iniciativa. Se diría que aquellos andamios ven, que aquella madera, aquel hierro y aquellas cuerdas tienen voluntad. En la horrible meditación en que aquella vista sume al alma, el patíbulo aparece terrible y como teniendo conciencia de lo que hace. El patíbulo es el cómplice del verdugo; devora, come carne, bebe sangre. Es una especie de monstruo fabricado por el juez y por el carpintero; un espectro que parece vivir una especie de vida espantosa, hecha con todas las muertes que ha dado.

Or je dis qu’il n’y a point d’homme, qui avec un peu de réflexion puisse balancer entre le crime, quelque avantage qu’il s’en promette, & la perte entière & perpétuelle de sa liberté. Donc l’intensité de la peine d’un esclavage perpétuel a tout ce qu’il faut pour détourner du crime l’esprit le plus déterminé, aussi bien que la peine de mort. J’ajoute qu’elle produira cet effet encore plus sûrement. Beaucoup d’hommes envisagent la mort d’un œil ferme & tranquille, les uns par fanatisme, d’autres par cette vanité qui nous accompagne au-delà même du tombeau ; d’autres par un dernier désespoir qui les pousse à sortir de la misère, ou à cesser de vivre. Mais le fanatisme & la vanité abandonnent le criminel dans les chaînes, sous les coups, dans une cage de fer ; & le désespoir ne termine pas ses maux, mais les commence.

A scaffold, when it is erected and prepared, has indeed a profoundly disturbing effect. We may remain more or less open-minded on the subject of the death penalty, indisposed to commit ourselves, so long as we have not seen a guillotine with our own eyes. But to do so is to be so shaken that we are obliged to take our stand for or against. Joseph de Maistre approved of the death penalty, Cesar de Beccaria abominated it. The guillotine is the ultimate expression of Law, and its name is vengeance; it is not neutral, nor does it allow us to remain neutral. He who sees it shudders in the most confounding dismay. All social questions achieve their finality around that blade. The scaffold is an image. It is not merely a framework, a machine, a lifeless mechanism of wood, iron and rope. It is as though it were a being having its own dark purpose, as though the framework saw, the machine listened, the mechanism understood; as though that arrangement of wood and iron and rope expressed a will. In the most hideous picture which its presence evokes it seems to be most terribly a part of what it does. It is the executioner's accomplice; it consumes, devouring flesh and drinking blood. It is a special kind of monster created by the judge and the craftsman; a spectre seeming to live an awful life born of the death it deals. This was the effect it had on the bishop, and on the day following the execution, and for many days after, he seemed to be overwhelmed. The almost violent serenity of the fateful moment vanished: he was haunted by the ghost of social justice. Whereas ordinarily he returned from the performance of his duties with a glow of satisfaction, he seemed now to be assailed with a sense of guilt. There were times when he talked to himself, muttering gloomy monologues under his breath. This is a fragment that his sister overheard: 'I did not know that it was so monstrous. It is wrong to become so absorbed in Divine Law that one is no longer aware of human law. Death belongs only to God. What right have men to lay hands on a thing so unknown?

Zanzotto ricorda che la nonna dialettofona, la nonna popolana recitava a lui piccolo versi familiari del Tasso, e quell'armonia del toscano illustre filtrava nella sua coscienza come "una vera e propria droga fonica, sopra il continuum un po' selvatico della parlata dialettale".

But Beccaria also stated most beautifully and clearly the essential principles of liberty. His foundation doctrine, that “every act of authority of one man over another for which there is not absolute necessity is tyrannical,” made a most profound impression in America.

Hemos oído incluso decir: "¡ Pero ustedes no han luchado, no han usado las armas!" No hemos usado las armas, pero se lucha con tantas armas: un manifiesto, un periódico, un escrito, incluso una máquina de escribir era un arma.

Madre e hija se saludaron a través de la ventana, de lejos, sin tocarse, porque Hortence no podía dejar la cama a causa de la pierna enferma. Aprecié la suerte de haber sido deportada sola, si parientes. Vi en el rostro de ambas, de la madre y de la hija, una máscara de sufrimiento nueva, rara en el campo, la máscara del dolor por sufrimiento ajeno. No volví a envidiar a Hortence, ni siquiera cuando acababa los guisantes o el pan. Era más desgraciada que yo.

FINE DELLE PENE. Dalla semplice considerazione delle verità fin qui esposte egli è evidente che il fine delle pene non è di tormentare ed affliggere un essere sensibile, né di disfare un delitto già commesso. Può egli in un corpo politico, che, ben lungi di agire per passione, è il tranquillo moderatore delle passioni particolari, può egli albergare questa inutile crudeltà stromento del furore e del fanatismo dei deboli tiranni? Le strida di un infelice richiamano forse dal tempo che non ritorna le azioni già consumate? Il fine duque non è altro che d'impedire il reo dal far nuovi danni ai suoi cittadini e di rimuovere gli altri dal farne uguali. Quelle pene dunque e quel metodo d'infliggerle deve esser prescelto che, serbata la proporzione, farà una impressione piú efficace e piú durevole sugli animi degli uomini, e la meno tormentosa sul corpo del reo.

delitti e delle pene (On Crimes and Punishments) published in Milan in 1764, and had copied no less than twenty-six extracts of it into his 1776 Commonplace Book. John Adams had quoted from Beccaria in his celebrated defense of the British soldiers unjustly accused during the Boston Massacre. Benjamin Franklin admired Beccaria hugely. Indeed, one of the great reproaches of the eighteenth-century radicals and liberals against the hereditary despotisms of the day was the lavish use that monarchy made of torture and of capital punishment. Beccaria’s treatise had exposed the futility and stupidity, as well as the sadism, of these practices—condemned as “cruel and unusual” in the language of the Eighth Amendment to the federal Constitution.

Jefferson in 1778 proposed a “Bill of Proportion in Crimes and Punishments” to the Virginia House of Delegates. Beccaria, he wrote, “had satisfied the reasonable world of the unrightfulness and inefficiency of the punishment of crimes by death.” As a substitute, he put forward a scheme of hard labor on public works. The measure was rejected by one vote, though it passed in a diluted form in 1796. Even though he was too ready to accept the inhuman practice of solitary confinement, which was later to be refined from Beccaria in the penal system proposed by Jeremy Bentham, Jefferson continued to press for a distinction between murder and manslaughter, which was recast as murder in the first and second degree, and to evolve his interest in the notion of the “penitentiary” as a scientific matter, with graduated and appropriate punishments. Again, none of this careful, measured liberalism was to be extended to those of African descent.

Una consecuencia extraña que necesariamente se deriva del uso de la tortura, es, que el inocente se hace de peor condición que el reo; puesto que aplicados ambos al tormento, el primero tiene todas las combinaciones contrarias; porque, o confiesa el delito, y es condenado, o lo niega, y declarado inocente ha sufrido una pena que no debía; pero el reo tiene un caso favorable para sí; este es, cuando resistiendo a la tortura con firmeza, debe ser absuelto como inocente; pues así ha cambiado una pena mayor por una menor. Luego el inocente debe perder, y el culpable puede ganar.

Beccaria - C’est dans un petit traité intitulé Des délits et des peines que l’on trouve la toute première argumentation philosophique contre la torture et la peine de mort.

Topluma doğrudan zarar veren bir suçun cezasız kalmasının, gerçekleşmesi olanaksız bulunan bir suçun ise cezalandırılmasının siyasal sakıncaları çok önemli ve büyüktür.

In order for punishment not to be, in every instance, an act of violence of one or many against a private citizen, it must be essentially public, prompt, necessary, the least possible in the given circumstances, proportionate to the crime and dictated by the laws. — Cesare Beccaria

In fact, when the scaffold is there, all erected and prepared, it has something about it which produces hallucination. One may feel a certain indifference to the death penalty, one may refrain from pronouncing upon it, from saying yes or no, so long as one has not seen a guillotine with one’s own eyes: but if one encounters one of them, the shock is violent; one is forced to decide, and to take part for or against. Some admire it, like de Maistre; others execrate it, like Beccaria. The guillotine is the concretion of the law; it is called vindicte; it is not neutral, and it does not permit you to remain neutral. He who sees it shivers with the most mysterious of shivers. All social problems erect their interrogation point around this chopping-knife. The scaffold is a vision. The scaffold is not a piece of carpentry; the scaffold is not a machine; the scaffold is not an inert bit of mechanism constructed of wood, iron and cords. It seems as though it were a being, possessed of I know not what sombre initiative; one would say that this piece of carpenter’s work saw, that this machine heard, that this mechanism understood, that this wood, this iron, and these Free eBooks at Planet eBook.com 31 cords were possessed of will. In the frightful meditation into which its presence casts the soul the scaffold appears in terrible guise, and as though taking part in what is going on. The scaffold is the accomplice of the executioner; it devours, it eats flesh, it drinks blood; the scaffold is a sort of monster fabricated by the judge and the carpenter, a spectre which seems to live with a horrible vitality composed of all the death which it has inflicted.

Telle est pourtant la chimère des hommes bornés lorsqu'ils ont en main le commandement. Interdire une foule d'actions indifférentes, ce n'est pas prévenir les délits qui peuvent résulter de ces actions : c'est en créer de nouveaux, c'est définir à son gré la vertu et le vice, dont on nous proclame qu'ils sont éternels et immuables. A quoi serions(nous réduits si l'on devait interdire tout ce qui peut inciter aux délits ? Il faudrait priver l'homme de l'usage de ses sens. Pour un motif qui pousse à commettre un véritable délit, il y en a mille qui poussent à commettre ces actions indifférentes que les mauvaises lois appellent délits ; et si la probabilité des délits est proportionnelle au nombre des motifs qui y incitent, élargir la sphère des délits, c'est accroïtre la probabilité qu'on les commette. La plupart des lois ne sont que des privilèges, c'est à dire un tribut payé par tout le monde en faveur d'un petit nombre. Vous voulez prévenir les délits ? Faites que les lois soient claires, simples, que toute la force de la nation soit rassemblée pour les défendre et qu'aucune de ses parties ne s'emploie à les détruire.