“It is more important that innocence be protected than it is that guilt be punished, for guilt and crimes are so frequent in this world that they cannot all be punished.But if innocence itself is brought to the bar and condemned, perhaps to die, then the citizen will say, 'whether I do good or whether I do evil is immaterial, for innocence itself is no protection,' and if such an idea as that were to take hold in the mind of the citizen that would be the end of security whatsoever.”
John Adams
The Portable John Adams
-
Working on it...
-
Working on it...
-
Working on it...
-
Working on it...
Similar quotes
“There is something splendid about innocence; but what is bad about it, in turn, is that it cannot protect itself very well and is easily seduced.”
Immanuel Kant
“Whether it is good or evil, whether life in itself is pain or pleasure, whether it is uncertain-that it may perhaps be this is not important-but the unity of the world, the coherence of all events, the embracing of the big and the small from the same stream, from the same law of cause, of becoming and dying.”
Hermann Hesse
Siddhartha
“This isn't about guilt or innocence, he says. The dinosaurs weren't morally good or bad, but they're all dead.”
Chuck Palahniuk
Lullaby
“Innocence has a single voice that can only say over and over again, "I didn't do it." Guilt has a thousand voices, all of them lies.”
Leonard F. Peltier
Prison Writings
“Guilt is easy, innocence is hard.”
Neal Shusterman