Quotes

Liberty is rendered even more precious by the recollection of servitude.

Once we are destined to live out our lives in the prison of our mind, our duty is to furnish it well.

Three hundred years ago a prisoner condemned to the Tower of London carved on the wall of his cell this sentiment to keep up his spirits during his long imprisonment: “It is not adversity that kills, but the impatience with which we bear adversity.”

What is crime amongst the multitude, is only vice among the few.

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.

The power of punishment is to silence, not to confute.

The world itself is but a large prison, out of which some are daily led to execution.

The perfection of a thing consists in its essence; there are perfect criminals, as there are men of perfect probity.

I can tell you this on a stack of Bibles: prisons are archaic, brutal, unregenerative, overcrowded hell holes where the inmates are treated like animals with absolutely not one humane thought given to what they are going to do once they are released. You're an animal in a cage and you're treated like one.

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

It is true you cannot eat freedom and you cannot power machinery with democracy. But then neither can political prisoners turn on the light in the cells of a dictatorship.

I don't like being famous - it is like a prison. And driving for Ferrari would make it far worse.

It is impossible to go through life without trust: That is to be imprisoned in the worst cell of all, oneself.

Written laws are like spiders' webs, and will, like them, only entangle and hold the poor and weak, while the rich and powerful will easily break through them.

Reality becomes a prison to those who can’t get out of it.

He who opens a school door, closes a prison.

A country is in a bad state, which is governed only by laws; because a thousand things occur for which laws cannot provide, and where authority ought to interpose.

Nelson Mandela and Malcolm X came out of prison stronger.

It is hard, but it is excellent, to find the right knowledge of when correction is necessary and when grace doth most avail.

Self is the only prison that can bind the soul.

We're in a war. People who blast some pot on a casual basis are guilty of treason.

Shyness is the prison of the heart.

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

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.

Trial by jury itself, instead of being a security to persons who are accused, shall be a delusion, a mockery, and a snare.