Part of the hanged man’s letter from “The Oxbow Incident”
“There are some other good men too, only they don’t realize what they’re doing.
They’re the ones I feel sorry for, because it’ll be over for me...
...but they’ll have to go on remembering for the rest of their lives.
A man just can’t take the law into his own hands and hang people...
...without hurting everybody in the world...
...because then he’s not just breaking one law, but all laws.
Law is a lot more than words you put in a book...
...or judges or lawyers or sheriffs you hire to carry it out.
It’s everything people ever have found out about justice...
...and what’s right and wrong.
It’s the very conscience of humanity.
There can’t be any such thing as civilization...
...unless people have a conscience...
...because if people touch God anywhere...
...where is it except through their conscience?”