Quotes

Distrust all in whom the impulse to punish is powerful.

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.

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

Forgiveness, that noblest of all self-denial, is a virtue which he alone who can practise in himself can willingly believe in another.

It is the deed that teaches, not the name we give it. Murder and capital punishment are not opposites that cancel one another, but similars that breed their own kind.

In jail a man has no personality. He is a minor disposal problem and a few entries on reports. Nobody cares who loves or hates him, what he looks like, what he did with his life. Nobody reacts to him unless he gives trouble. Nobody abuses him. All that is asked of him is that he go quietly to the right cell and remain quiet when he gets there. There is nothing to fight against, nothing to be mad at. The jailers are quiet men without animosity or sadism.

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

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.

A sick person is a prisoner.

It is better that ten guilty persons escape, than that one innocent suffer.

Nelson Mandela and Malcolm X came out of prison stronger.

Probably the only place where a man can feel really secure is in a maximum security prison, except for the imminent threat of release.

The difference between tax avoidance and tax evasion is the thickness of a prison walls.

We are prisoners of ideas.

And while God had work for Paul, he found him friends both in court and prison. Let persecutors send saints to prison, God can provide a keeper for their turn.

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

Prosecution I have managed to avoid; but I have been arrested, charged in a police court, have refused to be bound over, and thereupon have been unconditionally released - to my great regret; for I have always wanted to know what going to prison was like.

Prison makes you a better judge of character. You pick up on people much faster.

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

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

The worst prison is not of stone. It is of a throbbing heart, outraged by an infamous life.

So justice while she winks at crimes, Stumbles on innocence sometimes.

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

Every crime has, in the moment of its perpetration, Its own avenging angel--dark misgiving, An ominous sinking at the inmost heart.

In prison, you get the chance to see who really loves you.