Quotes

I know not whether laws be right, or whether laws be wrong; All that we know who lie in gaol is that the wall is strong; And that each day is like a year, a year whose days are long.

Clemency alone makes us equal to the gods.

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

Well does Heaven have care that no man secures happiness by crime.

I know not whether laws be right, or whether laws be wrong; All that we know who lie in gaol is that the wall is strong; And that each day is like a year, a year whose days are long.

They're not supposed to show prison films in prison. Especially ones that are about escaping.

I wrote a million words in the first year, and I could never have done that outside of prison.

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.”

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.

I have been studying how I may compare This prison where I live unto the world; And, for because the world is populous, And here is not a creature but myself, I cannot do it. Yet I'll hammer it out.

Wicked deeds are generally done, even with impunity, for the mere desire of occupation.

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

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

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

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

We have initiated programs for re-entry offenders, since some 500,000 to 600,000 offenders will come out of prison each year for the next three or four years. We want to have positive alternatives when they come back to the community.

There is a point at which even justice does injury.

The worst of prison life, he thought, was not being able to close his door.

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

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

If you share the crime of your friend, you make it your own.

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

It is safer that a bad man should not be accused, than that he should be acquitted.

Oh who is that young sinner with the handcuffs on his wrist? And what has he been after that they groan and shake their fists? And wherefore is he wearing such a conscience-stricken air? Oh they're taking him to prison for the colour of his hair.

Punishment, that is the justice for the unjust.