Written laws are like spiders' webs, and
Written laws are like spiders' webs, and will, like them, only entangle and hold the poor and weak, while the rich and powerful will easily break through them.
We are prisoners of ideas.
We are prisoners of ideas.
The common argument that crime is caused
The common argument that crime is caused by poverty is a kind of slander on the poor.
No obligation to justice does force a
No obligation to justice does force a man to be cruel, or to use the sharpest sentence.
A country is in a bad state, which is
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.
Two men look out the same prison bars;
Two men look out the same prison bars; one sees mud and the other stars.
Crime succeeds by sudden despatch;
Crime succeeds by sudden despatch; honest counsels gain vigor by delay.
When it comes to freedom, we are but
When it comes to freedom, we are but prisoners of our own desires.
Men are not prisoners of fate, but only
Men are not prisoners of fate, but only prisoners of their own minds.
By noiselessly going to a prison a
By noiselessly going to a prison a civil-resister ensures a calm atmosphere.
No man survives when freedom fails. The
No man survives when freedom fails. The best men rot in filthy jails, and those who cry 'appease, appease' are hanged by those they tried to please.
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.
A man who has no excuse for a crime, is
A man who has no excuse for a crime, is indeed defenseless!
The idea that the sole aim of punishment
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.
Probably the only place where a man can
Probably the only place where a man can feel really secure is in a maximum security prison, except for the imminent threat of release.
A just chastisement may benefit a man,
A just chastisement may benefit a man, though it seldom does; but an unjust one changes all his blood to gall.
As we grow in wisdom, we pardon more
As we grow in wisdom, we pardon more freely.
The perfection of a thing consists in
The perfection of a thing consists in its essence; there are perfect criminals, as there are men of perfect probity.
Why would anyone expect him to come out
Why would anyone expect him to come out smarter? He went to prison for three years, not Princeton.
In a civilized society, all crimes are
In a civilized society, all crimes are likely to be sins, but most sins are not and ought not to be treated as crimes.
The severest justice may not always be
The severest justice may not always be the best policy.
I have never been contained except I
I have never been contained except I made the prison.
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.
No man should be judge in his own case.
No man should be judge in his own case.
While we have prisons it matters little
While we have prisons it matters little which of us occupy the cells.
