Rationality Quotes September–December  2016

Sabiola

Another month, another rationality quotes thread. The rules are:

Provide sufficient information (URL, title, date, page number, etc.) to enable a reader to find the place where you read the quote, or its original source if available. Do not quote with only a name.
Post all quotes separately, so that they can be upvoted or downvoted separately. (If they are strongly related, reply to your own comments. If strongly ordered, then go ahead and post them together.)
Do not quote yourself.
Do not quote from Less Wrong itself, HPMoR, Eliezer Yudkowsky, or Robin Hanson. If you'd like to revive an old quote from one of those sources, please do so here.

EDIT: I haven't posted a monthly thread for October and November, since people haven't been posting many quotes and some people have said a monthly frequency might be too high. I'll make them quarterly instead. I should actually have made a new thread for October-December, but I'll leave it like this since people have been posting in it this month.

Another month, another rationality quotes thread. The rules are:

Provide sufficient information (URL, title, date, page number, etc.) to enable a reader to find the place where you read the quote, or its original source if available. Do not quote with only a name.
Post all quotes separately, so that they can be upvoted or downvoted separately. (If they are strongly related, reply to your own comments. If strongly ordered, then go ahead and post them together.)
Do not quote yourself.
Do not quote from Less Wrong itself, HPMoR, Eliezer Yudkowsky, or Robin Hanson. If you'd like to revive an old quote from one of those sources, please do so here.

Why is this rational? A great deal of the deterrent value of a criminal justice system consists in telling stories. If you simply state the facts, they might be much less deterring. Thus "they are going to lock him away and feed and house him for free for the next ten years," might look more like an additional benefit than a deterrent.

I believe you're missing the point. Saying "He is going to pay his debt to society," does not tell you much of anything unless you know all the context. Because the person who says it often does not want to inform you so much as they want to influence you or someone else.