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Cesare Beccaria
Author profile
born
March 15, 1738
in Milan, Italy
died
November 28, 1794
gender
male
genre
influences
More books by Cesare Beccaria…
“No man ever freely sacrificed a portion of his personal liberty merely in behalf of the common good. That chimera exists only in romances.”
― Cesare Beccaria, Crimes and Punishments: Including a New Translation of Beccaria's 'Dei Delitti E Delle Pene, '
― Cesare Beccaria, Crimes and Punishments: Including a New Translation of Beccaria's 'Dei Delitti E Delle Pene, '
“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.”
― Cesare Beccaria, Beccaria: 'on Crimes and Punishments' and Other Writings
― Cesare Beccaria, Beccaria: 'on Crimes and Punishments' and Other Writings
“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.”
― Cesare Beccaria, Beccaria: 'on Crimes and Punishments' and Other Writings
― Cesare Beccaria, Beccaria: 'on Crimes and Punishments' and Other Writings
