I am a minister of the Lord, and I dare not take a life without there be a proof so immaculate no slightest qualm of conscience may doubt it.
– Arthur Miller
The Crucible, Act 3. Having signed seventy-two death warrants in the Salem witch trials, Reverend Hale makes this comment to Danforth. The irony is that the "proof so immaculate" relied on by the court to decide guilt is the unsubstantiated word of one person against another. Hale, in agonizing over the "qualm of conscience" he feels with each case, is expressing his first real moments of doubt about what is happening in Salem. This foreshadows how the witchcraft expert will soon be full of concerns about Salem justice, believing eventually that he has "blood on my head."