Vices are not crimes.
Vices are not crimes.
It isn't true that convicts live like
It isn't true that convicts live like animals: animals have more room to move around.
Every crime has, in the moment of its
Every crime has, in the moment of its perpetration, Its own avenging angel--dark misgiving, An ominous sinking at the inmost heart.
Injustice anywhere is a threat to
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.
Law is merely the expression of the will
Law is merely the expression of the will of the strongest for the time being, and therefore laws have no fixity, but shift from generation to generation.
One crime has to be concealed by
One crime has to be concealed by another.
Pardon is the virtue of victory.
Pardon is the virtue of victory.
Only free men can negotiate. Prisoners
Only free men can negotiate. Prisoners cannot enter into contracts.
Distrust all in whom the impulse to
Distrust all in whom the impulse to punish is powerful.
Three hundred years ago a prisoner
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.”
Well does Heaven have care that no man
Well does Heaven have care that no man secures happiness by crime.
The torment of human frustration,
The torment of human frustration, whatever its immediate cause, is the knowledge that the self is in prison, its vital force and 'mangled mind' leaking away in lonely, wasteful self-conflict.
The guilt of enforced crimes lies on
The guilt of enforced crimes lies on those who impose them.
Before we can diminish our sufferings
Before we can diminish our sufferings from the ill-controlled aggressive assaults of fellow citizens, we must renounce the philosophy of punishment, the obsolete, vengeful penal attitude. In its place we would seek a comprehensive, constructive social attitude - therapeutic in some instances, restraining in some instances, but preventive in its total social impact. In the last analysis this becomes a question of personal morals and values. No matter how glorified or how piously disguised, vengeance as a human motive must be personally repudiated by each and every one of us.
Nothing can be more abhorrent to
Nothing can be more abhorrent to democracy than to imprison a person or keep him in prison because he is unpopular. This is really the test of civilization.
We shall not yield to violence. We shall
We shall not yield to violence. We shall not be deprived of union freedoms. We shall never agree with sending people to prison for their convictions.
The most anxious man in a prison is the
The most anxious man in a prison is the governor.
We're in a war. People who blast some
We're in a war. People who blast some pot on a casual basis are guilty of treason.
One man meets an infamous punishment for
One man meets an infamous punishment for that crime which confers a diadem upon another.
Nor stony tower, nor walls of beaten
Nor stony tower, nor walls of beaten brass, Nor airless dungeon, nor strong links of iron, Can be retentive to the strength of spirit; But life, being weary of these worldly bars, Never lacks power to dismiss itself.
The virtue of justice consists in
The virtue of justice consists in moderation, as regulated by wisdom.
The contagion of crime is like that of
The contagion of crime is like that of the plague. Criminals collected together corrupt each other; they are worse than ever when at the termination of their punishment they re-enter society.
When it comes to freedom, we are but
When it comes to freedom, we are but prisoners of our own desires.
We are prisoners of ideas.
We are prisoners of ideas.
Mere factual innocence is no reason not
Mere factual innocence is no reason not to carry out a death sentence properly reached.
