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.
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.
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.
Assassination is the extreme form of
Assassination is the extreme form of censorship.
By noiselessly going to a prison a
By noiselessly going to a prison a civil-resister ensures a calm atmosphere.
It is better that ten guilty persons
It is better that ten guilty persons escape, than that one innocent suffer.
I am certain that nothing has done so
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.
The English laws punish vice; the
The English laws punish vice; the Chinese laws do more, they reward virtue.
If it's near dinner-time, the foreman
If it's near dinner-time, the foreman takes out his watch when the jury has retired, and says: "Dear me, gentlemen, ten minutes to five, I declare! I dine at five, gentlemen." "So do I," says everybody else, except two men who ought to have dined at three and seem more than half disposed to stand out in consequence. The foreman smiles, and puts up his watch:--"Well, gentlemen, what do we say, plaintiff or defendant, gentlemen?
If you share the crime of your friend,
If you share the crime of your friend, you make it your own.
Some laws of state aimed at curbing
Some laws of state aimed at curbing crime are even more criminal.
The degree of civilization in a society
The degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering its prisons.
We shall fight against them, throw them
We shall fight against them, throw them in prisons and destroy them.
The thoughts of a prisoner - they're not
The thoughts of a prisoner - they're not free either. They keep returning to the same things.
Crime succeeds by sudden despatch;
Crime succeeds by sudden despatch; honest counsels gain vigor by delay.
It becomes not a law-maker to be a
It becomes not a law-maker to be a law-breaker.
It is safer that a bad man should not be
It is safer that a bad man should not be accused, than that he should be acquitted.
We are prisoners of ideas.
We are prisoners of ideas.
There are dreadful punishments enacted
There are dreadful punishments enacted against thieves; but it were much better to make such good provisions, by which every man might be put in a method how to live, and so to be preserved from the fatal necessity of stealing and dying for it.
One crime is everything; two nothing.
One crime is everything; two nothing.
I know how men in exile feed on dreams
I know how men in exile feed on dreams of hope.
The only difference between me and my
The only difference between me and my fellow actors is that I've spent more time in jail.
The guilt of enforced crimes lies on
The guilt of enforced crimes lies on those who impose them.
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.
Adversities such as being homeless and
Adversities such as being homeless and going to prison has made many people stronger.
