Here the great art lies, to discern in
Here the great art lies, to discern in what the law is to be to restraint and punishment, and in what things persuasion only is to work.
I was put into jail as I was going to
I was put into jail as I was going to the shoemaker's to get a shoe which was mended. When I was let out the next morning, I proceeded to finish my errand, and, having put on my mended shoe, joined a huckleberry party, who were impatient to put themselves under my conduct; and in half an hour -- for the horse was soon tackled -- was in the midst of a huckleberry field, on one of our highest hills, two miles off, and then the State was nowhere to be seen.
They took away my money, my family, and
They took away my money, my family, and my security. Why couldn't they destroy my ideas? We will question them in court tomorrow as we trigger The Revolution of all revolutions!
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.
Educate your children to self-control,
Educate your children to self-control, to the habit of holding passion and prejudice and evil tendencies to an upright and reasoning will, and you have done much to abolish misery from their future lives and crimes to society.
So justice while she winks at crimes,
So justice while she winks at crimes, Stumbles on innocence sometimes.
The virtue of justice consists in
The virtue of justice consists in moderation, as regulated by wisdom.
Intellectual despair results in neither
Intellectual despair results in neither weakness nor dreams, but in violence. It is only a matter of knowing how to give vent to one's rage; whether one only wants to wander like madmen around prisons, or whether one wants to overturn them.
Men are not prisoners of fate, but only
Men are not prisoners of fate, but only prisoners of their own minds.
In jail a man has no personality. He is
In jail a man has no personality. He is a minor disposal problem and a few entries on reports. Nobody cares who loves or hates him, what he looks like, what he did with his life. Nobody reacts to him unless he gives trouble. Nobody abuses him. All that is asked of him is that he go quietly to the right cell and remain quiet when he gets there. There is nothing to fight against, nothing to be mad at. The jailers are quiet men without animosity or sadism.
No obligation to justice does force a
No obligation to justice does force a man to be cruel, or to use the sharpest sentence.
Society has used the juvenile courts to
Society has used the juvenile courts to create a caste system where there are throw-away people.
The degree of civilization in a society
The degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering its prisons.
I sometimes wish that people would put a
I sometimes wish that people would put a little more emphasis upon the observance of the law than they do upon its enforcement.
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.
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.
On a planet that increasingly resembles
On a planet that increasingly resembles one huge Maximum Security prison, the only intelligent choice is to plan a jail break.
I was in prison, and you came unto me.
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
He who profits by a crime commits it.
He who profits by a crime commits it.
What is crime amongst the multitude, is
What is crime amongst the multitude, is only vice among the few.
It becomes not a law-maker to be a
It becomes not a law-maker to be a law-breaker.
There is a point at which even justice
There is a point at which even justice does injury.
Once we are destined to live out our
Once we are destined to live out our lives in the prison of our mind, our duty is to furnish it well.
In prisons, those things withheld from
In prisons, those things withheld from and denied to the prisoner become precisely what he wants most of all.
Hard cases, it is said, make bad law.
Hard cases, it is said, make bad law.
