It is possible to conceive of a society blessed with so great a consciousness of its own power as to indulge in the most aristocratic luxury of letting its wrong-doers go scot-free.— “What do my parasites matter to me?” might society say. “Let them live and flourish! I am strong enough for it.” — The justice which began with the maxim, “Everything can be paid off, everything must be paid off,” ends with connivance at the escape of those who cannot pay to escape — it ends, like every good thing on earth, by destroying itself. — The self-destruction of Justice! we know the pretty name it calls
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