Our system is the height of absurdity, since we treat the culprit both as a child, so as to have the right to punish him, and as an adult, in order to deny him consolation.
"Tristes Tropiques". Book by Claude Lévi-Strauss, translated by John and Doreen Weightman. Chapter 38: "A Little Glass of Rum," pp. 388-389, 1955.
