He thought that in the history of the world it might even be that there was more punishment than crime but he took small comfort from it.
Interpretation
The quote reflects on the disproportion between punishment and crime, suggesting that humanity often deals with more suffering than wrongdoing.
Cormac McCarthy's quote delves into the philosophical contemplation of justice and morality. It suggests that, throughout history, the imbalance between the severity of punishments and the nature of crimes may lead one to consider the idea that there has been an excess of suffering compared to the actual offenses committed. Despite acknowledging this imbalance, the speaker finds little solace in this thought, highlighting a deep sense of existential contemplation regarding human experiences of guilt, suffering, and the nature of justice.
In practice
This quote could be used in a discussion about the justice system and its effectiveness.
Yet it is the narrative that is the life of the dream while the events themselves are often interchangeable. The events of the waking world on the other hand are forced upon us and the narrative is the unguessed axis along which they must be strung.
See the hand that nursed the serpent. The fine hasped pipes of her fingerbones. The skin bewenned and speckled. The veins are milkblue and bulby. A thin gold ring set with diamonds. That raised the once child's heart of her to agonies of passion before I was. Here is the anguish of mortality. Hopes wrecked, love sundered. See the mother sorrowing. How everything that I was warned of's come to pass.
What he could bear in the waking world he could not by night and he sat awake for fear the dream would return.
The judge placed his hands on the ground. He looked at his inquisitor. This is my claim, he said. And yet everywhere upon it are pockets of autonomous life. Autonomous. In order for it to be mine nothing must be permitted to occur upon it save by my dispensation.
Only now is the child finally divested of all that he has been. His origins are become remote as is his destiny and not again in all the world's turning will there be terrains so wild and barbarous to try whether the stuff of creation may be shaped to man's will or whether his own heart is not another kind of clay.
He knew only that his child was his warrant. He said: If he is not the word of God God never spoke.
Condemning all women in order to help some misguided men get over their foolish behaviour is tantamount to denouncing fire, which is a vital and beneficial element, just because some people are burnt by it, or to cursing water just because some people are drowned in it.
I am good to people who are good. I am also good to people who are not good. Because Virtue is goodness.
A man only has a soul to be won or lost.
Every real thought on every real subject knocks the wind out of somebody or other.
Death is the only pure, beautiful conclusion of a great passion.
Don't tell me to believe. Don't tell me to believe in the same God or laws that men believe in who commit these murders. Don't tell me to believe that God can bless this country and that men are judged by their peers. Who among his peers judged him? Was I there? Was the minister there? Was Harry Williams there? Was Farrell Jarreau? Was my aunt? Was Vivian? No, his peers did not judge him, and I will not believe.
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