The Bet Quotes

"I have not tried either the death penalty or imprisonment for life, but if one may judge à priori, […]" (1.2)

"The death penalty is more moral and more humane than imprisonment for life. Capital punishment kills a man at once, but lifelong imprisonment kills him slowly. Which executioner is the more humane...

"The State is not God. It has not the right to take away what it cannot restore when it wants to." (1.3)

It was decided that the young man should spend the years of his captivity under the strictest supervision in one of the lodges in the banker's garden. It was agreed that for fifteen years he should...

A lively discussion arose. The banker, who was younger and more nervous in those days, was suddenly carried away by excitement; he struck the table with his fist and shouted at the young man: "It's...