Quotes

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.

I have paid no poll-tax for six years. I was put into a jail once on this account, for one night; and, as I stood considering the walls of solid stone, I could not help being struck with the foolishness of that institution which treated me as if I were mere flesh and blood and bones, to be locked up...I saw that, if there was a wall of stone between me and my townsmen, there was a still more difficult one to climb or break through, before they could get to be as free as I was. I did not for a moment feel confined, and the walls seemed a great waste of stone and mortar.

Crimes lead one into another; they who are capable of being forgers are capable of being incendiaries.

There are dreadful punishments enacted against thieves; but it were much better to make such good provisions, by which every man might be put in a method how to live, and so to be preserved from the fatal necessity of stealing and dying for it.

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

Society has used the juvenile courts to create a caste system where there are throw-away people.

Why would anyone expect him to come out smarter? He went to prison for three years, not Princeton.

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

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

The best situation of all, and one frequently utilized, is for jails and prisons to allow volunteer ministers of all faiths to enter prisons and offer their services to the inmates who want them. That way, the religious needs of inmates are met but without government funds being spent.

Laws do not persuade just because they threaten.

The only real prison is fear, and the only real freedom is freedom from fear.

The object of punishment is prevention from evil; it never can be made impulsive to good.

If we look at Houston, which is a very environmentally toxic place, we find that it has one of the highest levels of young men going to prison and also among the highest levels of illiteracy in the country.

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

Those magistrates who can prevent crime, and do not, in effect encourage it.

No man survives when freedom fails. The best men rot in filthy jails, and those who cry 'appease, appease' are hanged by those they tried to please.

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.

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

Let us remember that justice must be observed even to the lowest.

On a planet that increasingly resembles one huge Maximum Security prison, the only intelligent choice is to plan a jail break.

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

Man is condemned to be free.

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

When the Nazis came for the communists, I remained silent; I was not a communist. When they locked up the social democrats, I remained silent; I was not a social democrat. When they came for the trade unionists, I did not speak out; I was not a trade unionist. When they came for me, there was no one left to speak out.