The number of laws is constantly growing in all countries and, owing to this, what is called crime is very often not a crime at all, for it contains no element of violence or harm.
When is conduct a crime, and when is a crime not a crime? When Somebody Up There -- a monarch, a dictator, a Pope, a legislator -- so decrees.
Kill a man, and you are an assassin. Kill millions of men, and you are a conqueror. Kill everyone, and you are a God.
Justice is that virtue of the soul which is distributive according to desert.
A sick person is a prisoner.
Nor cell, nor chain, nor dungeon speaks to the murderer like the voice of solitude.
Hard cases, it is said, make bad law.
Laws grind the poor, and rich men rule the law.
We shall not yield to violence. We shall not be deprived of union freedoms. We shall never agree with sending people to prison for their convictions.
The perfection of a thing consists in its essence; there are perfect criminals, as there are men of perfect probity.
One should respect public opinion insofar as is necessary to avoid starvation and keep out of prison, but anything that goes beyond this is voluntary submission to an unnecessary tyranny.
The penalty for laughing in a courtroom is six months in jail; if it were not for this penalty, the jury would never hear the evidence.
If you want total security, go to prison. There you’re fed, clothed, given medical care and so on. The only thing lacking…is freedom.
Prosecution I have managed to avoid; but I have been arrested, charged in a police court, have refused to be bound over, and thereupon have been unconditionally released - to my great regret; for I have always wanted to know what going to prison was like.
Pardon is the virtue of victory.
While we have prisons it matters little which of us occupy the cells.
I just remember that disturbing feeling of walking into that prison, the complete loss of privacy, the complete loss of stimulation, dignity.
Men are not prisoners of fate, but only prisoners of their own minds.
A pedestal is as much a prison as any small, confined space.
Mere factual innocence is no reason not to carry out a death sentence properly reached.
The idea that the sole aim of punishment is to prevent crime is obviously grounded upon the theory that crime can be prevented, which is almost as dubious as the notion that poverty can be prevented.
Two men look out the same prison bars; one sees mud and the other stars.
Prison, dungeons, blessed places where evil is impossible because they are the crossroads of all the evil in the world. One cannot commit evil in hell.
Self is the only prison that can bind the soul.
The common argument that crime is caused by poverty is a kind of slander on the poor.
