“Distrust everyone in whom the impulse to punish is powerful.”

Indeed.

Knowing the man I know that the intent behind the quote is despicable.

he is right

Interesting. I'm not a big Nietzsche lover, but if we assume that this is good advice from him, we'd be talking about the USA, for sure, as we have more people in prison, both by numbers and by "per capita" than ANY OTHER COUNTRY IN THE WORLD. Hmmmm....

4 star Anonymous, you are absolutely right. The U.S. has more political prisoners than any other country has prisoners. By way of a very brief personal experience: (I've given these examples before) I know an individual that spent 5 years in prison without benefit of a trial. Another individual went to prison for 5 years after no grand jury and for supposedly violating a statute that had expired years previous (before the trial was over, prosecution changed the statutes - totally unrelated to the case). Attempting appeals, the official court transcripts were completely changed. Another individual, had a sentence of 5 yrs. (totally bogus charge) and spent an extra 2+ years behind bars "just because" (no reason given), and then, after the probation time was over (there was to be no probation) the individual was put on "executive parol" and the federal marshals said they didn't have to recognize any judicial edicts because that was a separate branch of government. Can someone here describe to me what an "executive parol" is that it doesn't come under any judicial oversight? As to government - the quote is a very, Very, VERY accurate statement!