Cesare Beccaria - On Crimes and Punishments (1764)

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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

False is the idea of utility that sacrifices a thousand real advantages for one imaginary or trifling inconvenience; that would take fire from men because it burns, and water because one may drown in it; that has no remedy for evils except destruction. The laws that forbid the carrying of arms are laws of such a nature. They disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes.

Cesare Beccaria

Crimes are more effectually prevented by the certainty than the severity of punishment

Cesare Beccaria

For a punishment to be just it should consist of only such gradations of intensity as suffice to deter men from committing crimes.

Cesare Beccaria