Quotes

We who live in prison, and in whose lives there is no event but sorrow, have to measure time by throbs of pain, and the record of bitter moments.

Here the great art lies, to discern in what the law is to be to restraint and punishment, and in what things persuasion only is to work.

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

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

I just remember that disturbing feeling of walking into that prison, the complete loss of privacy, the complete loss of stimulation, dignity.

America is the land of the second chance – and when the gates of the prison open, the path ahead should lead to a better life.

Taught from infancy that beauty is woman's sceptre, the mind shapes itself to the body, and roaming round its gilt cage, only seeks to adorn its prison.

I was in prison, and you came unto me. Verily I say unto you, inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.
~(Jesus Christ) Matthew 25:36, 40

Overlook our deeds, since you know that crime was absent from our inclination.

I existed in a world that never is - the prison of the mind.

Whatever is worthy to be loved for anything is worthy of preservation. A wise and dispassionate legislator, if any such should ever arise among men, will not condemn to death him who has done or is likely to do more service than injury to society. Blocks and gibbets are the nearest objects with legislators, and their business is never with hopes or with virtues.

I have been studying how I may compare this prison where I live unto the world; Shut up in the prison of their own consciences.

A just chastisement may benefit a man, though it seldom does; but an unjust one changes all his blood to gall.

A man will be imprisoned in a room with a door that's unlocked and opens inwards, as long as it does not occur to him to pull rather than push.

Civilization is maintained by a very few people in a small number of places and we need only some bombs and a few prisons to blot it out altogether.

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.

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

I have never been contained except I made the prison.

Self is the only prison that can bind the soul.

The most anxious man in a prison is the governor.

Only free men can negotiate. Prisoners cannot enter into contracts.

When I was in prison, I was wrapped up in all those deep books. That Tolstoy crap - people shouldn't read that stuff.

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

If you strike at, imprison, or kill us, out of our prisons or graves we will still evoke a spirit that will thwart you, and perhaps, raise a force that will destroy you! We defy you! Do your worst!

In the halls of justice, the only justice is in the halls.