To punish a man because he has committed a crime, or because he is believed, though unjustly, to have committed a crime, is not persecution. To punish a man, because we infer from the nature of some doctrine which he holds, or from the conduct of other persons who hold the same doctrines with him, that he will commit a crime, is persecution, and is, in every case, foolish and wicked.
Interpretation
Punishing someone based on assumptions about their beliefs is unjust and considered persecution.
In this quote, Thomas B. Macaulay distinguishes between legitimate punishment for actions and unjust persecution based on beliefs or inferred behaviors. He argues that punishing someone for what they might do based on their doctrine or the actions of others who share their beliefs is both irrational and immoral, emphasizing that such persecution stems from unfounded fears rather than actual wrongdoing.
In practice
In a discussion about legal reforms, one might quote this to emphasize the importance of due process.
None of the modes by which a magistrate is appointed, popular election, the accident of the lot, or the accident of birth, affords, as far as we can perceive, much security for his being wiser than any of his neighbours. The chance of his being wiser than all his neighbours together is still smaller.
Your Constitution is all sail and no anchor.
I wish I was as sure of anything as he is of everything.
Mere negation, mere Epicurean infidelity, as Lord Bacon most justly observes, has never disturbed the peace of the world. It furnishes no motive for action; it inspires no enthusiasm; it has no missionaries, no crusades, no martyrs.
What a blessing it is to love books as I love them;- to be able to converse with the dead, and to live amidst the unreal!
And to say that society ought to be governed by the opinion of the wisest and best, though true, is useless. Whose opinion is to decide who are the wisest and best?
For death is no more than a turning of us over from time to eternity.
The essence of Buddhism is if you can, help others. If not, then at least refrain from hurting others.
The tendency of the casual mind is to pick out or stumble upon a sample which supports or defies its prejudices, and then to make it the representative of a whole class.
American dog say, 'Woof, woof.' Korean dog say, 'Mung, mung.' Polish dog say, 'How, how.' So which dog barking is correct? That is human beings' barking, not 'dog' barking. If dog and you become one hundred percent one, then you know sound of barking. This is Zen teaching. Boom! Become one.
I don't think any of us really knows why we're here. But I think we're supposed to believe we're here for a purpose.
The girl never really lived, and so she has never really died.
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