Quotes

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

I was in prison, and you came unto me. Verily I say unto you, inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.
~(Jesus Christ) Matthew 25:36, 40

Laws grind the poor, and rich men rule the law.

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.

Liberty is rendered even more precious by the recollection of servitude.

The severest justice may not always be the best policy.

The idea that the sole aim of punishment is to prevent crime is obviously grounded upon the theory that crime can be prevented, which is almost as dubious as the notion that poverty can be prevented.

Pardon is the virtue of victory.

Taught from infancy that beauty is woman's sceptre, the mind shapes itself to the body, and roaming round its gilt cage, only seeks to adorn its prison.

The law does not pretend to punish everything that is dishonest. That would seriously interfere with business.

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

Experts and the educated elite have replaced what worked with what sounded good. Society was far more civilized before they took over our schools, prisons, welfare programs, police departments and courts. It's high time we ran these people out of our lives and went back to common sense.

Virtue pardons the wicked, as the sandal-tree perfumes the axe which strikes it.

The power of punishment is to silence, not to confute.

It becomes not a law-maker to be a law-breaker.

Fast closed with double grills
And triple gates – the cell
To wicked souls is hell;
But to a mind that's innocent
'Tis only iron, wood and stone.

Whatever is worthy to be loved for anything is worthy of preservation. A wise and dispassionate legislator, if any such should ever arise among men, will not condemn to death him who has done or is likely to do more service than injury to society. Blocks and gibbets are the nearest objects with legislators, and their business is never with hopes or with virtues.

The virtue of justice consists in moderation, as regulated by wisdom.

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

I am certain that nothing has done so much to destroy the juridical safeguards of individual freedom as the striving after this mirage of social justice.

Self is the only prison that can bind the soul.

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.

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

To seek the redress of grievances by going to law, is like sheep running for shelter to a bramble bush.

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.