I know not whether laws be right, or
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.
The number of laws is constantly growing
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.
To be in prison so long, it's difficult
To be in prison so long, it's difficult to remember exactly what you did to get there.
One of the many lessons that one learns
One of the many lessons that one learns in prison is, that things are what they are and will be what they will be.
No man should be judge in his own case.
No man should be judge in his own case.
To trial bring her stolen charms, and
To trial bring her stolen charms, and let her prison be my arms.
One crime has to be concealed by
One crime has to be concealed by another.
What restrains us from killing is partly
What restrains us from killing is partly fear of punishment, partly moral scruple, and partly what may be described as a sense of humor.
I existed in a world that never is - the
I existed in a world that never is - the prison of the mind.
The worst prison is not of stone. It is
The worst prison is not of stone. It is of a throbbing heart, outraged by an infamous life.
A Sunday school is a prison in which
A Sunday school is a prison in which children do penance for the evil conscience of their parents.
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.”
Society has used the juvenile courts to
Society has used the juvenile courts to create a caste system where there are throw-away people.
Body is a home, a prison and a grave.
Body is a home, a prison and a grave.
Faults of the head are punished in this
Faults of the head are punished in this world, those of the heart in another; but as most of our vices are compound, so also is their punishment.
We have our own system, ... and
We have our own system, ... and journalists in our system are not put in prison for embarrassing the government by revealing things the government might not wish to have revealed. The important thing is that our system, under which journalists can write without fear or favor, should continue.
It is better that ten guilty persons
It is better that ten guilty persons escape, than that one innocent suffer.
Crimes generally punish themselves.
Crimes generally punish themselves.
I just remember that disturbing feeling
I just remember that disturbing feeling of walking into that prison, the complete loss of privacy, the complete loss of stimulation, dignity.
It is not at the table, but in prison,
It is not at the table, but in prison, that you learn who your true friends are.
Laws do not persuade just because they
Laws do not persuade just because they threaten.
One of the problems that the marijuana
One of the problems that the marijuana reform movement consistently faces is that everyone wants to talk about what marijuana does, but no one ever wants to look at what marijuana prohibition does. Marijuana never kicks down your door in the middle of the night. Marijuana never locks up sick and dying people, does not suppress medical research, does not peek in bedroom windows. Even if one takes every reefer madness allegation of the prohibitionists at face value, marijuana prohibition has done far more harm to far more people than marijuana ever could.
The severest justice may not always be
The severest justice may not always be the best policy.
I wrote a million words in the first
I wrote a million words in the first year, and I could never have done that outside of prison.
It is true you cannot eat freedom and
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.
