Quotes

I asked a man in prison once how he happened to be there and he said he had stolen a pair of shoes. I told him if he had stolen a railroad he would be a United States Senator.

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.

No written law has been more binding than unwritten custom supported by popular opinion.

Virtue pardons the wicked, as the sandal-tree perfumes the axe which strikes it.

What restrains us from killing is partly fear of punishment, partly moral scruple, and partly what may be described as a sense of humor.

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.

Prisons don't rehabilitate, they don't punish, they don't protect, so what the hell do they do?

Fear can be like a prison. It is, however, a self made prison. Many are imprisoned by fear. No one else can liberate them from this prison. Others may inspire them but they must liberate themselves.

The common argument that crime is caused by poverty is a kind of slander on the poor.

There's no greater threat to our independence, to our cherished freedoms and personal liberties than the continual, relentless injection of these insidious poisons into our system. We must decide whether we cherish independence from drugs, without which there is no freedom.

Extreme justice is extreme injustice.

Kill a man, and you are an assassin. Kill millions of men, and you are a conqueror. Kill everyone, and you are a God.

A variety in punishment is of utility, as well as a proportion.

Show me the prison, Show me the jail, Show me the prisoner whose life has gone stale. And I'll show you a young man with so many reasons why And there, but for fortune, go you or I.

Mere factual innocence is no reason not to carry out a death sentence properly reached.

No matter how you seem to fatten on a crime, that can never be good for the bee which is bad for the hive.

Man is condemned to be free.

The thoughts of a prisoner - they're not free either. They keep returning to the same things.

The reformative effect of punishment is a belief that dies hard, chiefly I think, because it is so satisfying to our sadistic impulses.

By noiselessly going to a prison a civil-resister ensures a calm atmosphere.

Everyone is a prisoner of his own experiences. No one can eliminate prejudices - just recognize them.

I don't like jail, they got the wrong kind of bars in there.

Do not lay on the multitude the blame that is due to a few.

Wherever any one is against his will, that is to him a prison.

One of the many lessons that one learns in prison is, that things are what they are and will be what they will be.