Hanging one scoundrel, it appears, does not deter the next. Well, what of it? The first one is at least disposed of.
Interpretation
Punishing one wrongdoer does not prevent others from committing similar offenses.
H. L. Mencken's quote suggests that the act of punishing or executing one individual who has done wrong does little to prevent future wrongdoings by others. It reflects a cynical view of justice, implying that although one criminal may be removed from society, new ones will inevitably arise, questioning the effectiveness of punitive measures in deterring crime overall.
In practice
In a discussion about the effectiveness of the death penalty as a deterrent.
I know a good many men of great learning-that is, men born with an extraordinary eagerness and capacity to acquire knowledge. One and all, they tell me that they can't recall learning anything of any value in school. All that schoolmasters managed to accomplish with them was to test and determine the amount of knowledge that they had already acquired independently-and not infrequently the determination was made clumsily and inaccurately.
It takes a long while for a naturally trustful person to reconcile himself to the idea that after all God will not help him
It is the theory of all modern civilized governments that they protect and foster the liberty of the citizen; it is the practice of all of them to limit its exercise, and sometimes very narrowly.
The central belief of every moron is that he is the victim of a mysterious conspiracy against his common rights and true deserts.
The cure for the evils of democracy is more democracy.
It is my conviction that no normal man ever fell in love, within the ordinary meaning of the term, after the age of thirty.
But the Good Book said a lot of things. Like 'love thy neighbor' and ' do unto others as you would have them do unto you'. If nothing else, wasn't the message of the Good Book to live and let live? So how could the Crosses call themselves 'God's chosen' and still treat us the way they did?
Who is more to be pitied, a writer bound and gagged by policemen or one living in perfect freedom who has nothing more to say?
We have used the Bible as if it was a mere special constable's handbook β an opium-dose for keeping beasts of burden patient while they were being overloaded β a mere book to keep the poor in order.
I could write a thesis on the physiology of vision. But I had no way to look through the fabric of confabulation spun by a man with severe lung disease who was prescribed 'home oxygen', but gave a false address out of embarrassment because he had no 'home.'
The great paradox of the 21st century is that, in this age of powerful technology, the biggest problems we face internationally are problems of the human soul.
Principles are the simplicity on the far side of complexity.
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