If a person transgresses any of these rules, the penalty shall fit the crime.
[Quod quis earum rerum migrassit, noxiae poena par esto.]
Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BC) Roman orator, statesman, philosopher
De Legibus [On the Laws], Book 3, ch. 4 / sec. 11 (3.4/3.11) [Marcus] (c. 51 BC) [tr. Rudd (1998)]
(Source)
A variant on the Latin legal maxim, culpae poenae par esto, usually rendered "Let the punishment fit the crime" (see also Gilbert & Sullivan, The Mikado (1885)).
(Source (Latin)). Alternate translations:If any one shall infringe any of these laws, let him bear the penalty.
[tr. Barham (1842)]If any one shall infringe any of these laws, let him be liable to a penalty.
[tr. Barham/Yonge (1878)]The punishment for violation of any of these laws shall fit the offense.
[tr. Keyes (1928)]Whatever of these someone has violated, let the penalty be equivalent to the crime.
[tr. Zetzel (1999)]Whatever of these matters someone departs from, let there be a penalty equal to the wrongdoing.
[tr. Fott (2013)]Whatever someone has violated, let the punishment match the offense.
[Bartelett's]
Quotations about:
proportionality
Note not all quotations have been tagged, so Search may find additional quotes on this topic.
“Neither does this please me, nothing in excess;” for we ought to hate in excess those that are bad to excess.
[οὐδὲ τὸ μηδὲν ἄγαν· δεῖ γὰρ τούς γε κακοὺς ἄγαν μισεῖν.]
Aristotle (384-322 BC) Greek philosopher
Rhetoric [Ῥητορική; Ars Rhetorica], Book 2, ch. 21, sec. 14 (2.21.14) / 1395a.33 (350 BC) [Source (1847)]
(Source)
On developing one's own maxims and proverbs, and how to present them. (Source (Greek)). Alternate translations:Nor again [does this please me], that we ought to carry nothing to excess; since 'tis our duty to hate the wicked at least to the very extreme.
[tr. Buckley (1850)]No do I like the saying, Do nothing excessively. Bad men should be hated excessively.
[tr. Jebb (1873)]Nor do I approve of the saying "nothing in excess": we are bound to hate bad men excessively.
[tr. Rhys Roberts (1924)]Nor do I approve the maxim "Nothing in excess," for one cannot hate the wicked too much."
[tr. Freese (1926)]Neither is "nothing in excess" [satisfying to me]. For one must tate to excess at least those who are evil.
[tr. Bartlett (2019)][I do not] commend the saying “nothing in excess” because one must hate evil men to the extreme.
[tr. @sentantiq (2019)]
The politics of the university are so intense because the stakes are so low.
Wallace Sayre (1905-1972) U.S. political scientist, academic
Sayre’s Third Law
One of several formulations of the same sentiment, which has also been attributed to Richard Neustadt, Jesse Unruh, Henry Kissinger ("University politics are vicious precisely because the stakes are so small"), Charles Philip Issawi ("In any dispute the intensity of feeling is inversely proportional to the value of the issues at stake. That is why academic politics are so bitter"), Lawrence Peter, C.P. Snow, and others, with antecedents by Samuel Johnson and Woodrow Wilson. Most of the attributions come in the early-mid 1970s, though Herbert Kaufman, a colleague, claimed Sayres had used the phrase for decades.
See also Quote Investigator, Quote Verifier, and Wikipedia for more discussion.
