Execution.—How is it that every execution offends us more than does a murder? It is the coldness of the judges, the painful preparations, the conviction that a human being is here being used as a warning to scare others. For the guilt is not punished, even if it existed—it lies with educators, parents, surroundings, in ourselves, not in the murderer—I mean the determining circumstances.

Execution.—How is it that every execution offends us more than does a murder? It is the coldness of the judges, the painful preparations, the conviction that a human being is here being used as a warning to scare others. For the guilt is not punished, even if it existed—it lies with educators, parents, surroundings, in ourselves, not in the murderer—I mean the determining circumstances.

Source

Human, All-Too-Human, Part 1 (1909 English edition)
Part1, complete printed aphorism 70; Helen Zimmern translation; Edinburgh and London: T.N. Foulis,1909
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Attribution confidence

attributed · historical anthology
Preserved as printed; independently unverified.

Historical coordinate

c. 1872 AD · industrial
author lifetime midpoint (1844–1900); not quotation composition date; not composition date.

Rights & edition

Public domain (United States)
Translations and rights may differ elsewhere.
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