Quotes

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.

The common argument that crime is caused by poverty is a kind of slander on the poor.

To my mind, to kill in war is not a whit better than to commit ordinary murder.

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.

So justice while she winks at crimes, Stumbles on innocence sometimes.

If you strike at, imprison, or kill us, out of our prisons or graves we will still evoke a spirit that will thwart you, and perhaps, raise a force that will destroy you! We defy you! Do your worst!

You utter a vow, or forge a signature, and you may find yourself bound for life to a monastery, a woman, or prison.

The refined punishments of the spiritual mode are usually much more indecent and dangerous than a good smack.

We're in a war. People who blast some pot on a casual basis are guilty of treason.

One man meets an infamous punishment for that crime which confers a diadem upon another.

Trial by jury itself, instead of being a security to persons who are accused, shall be a delusion, a mockery, and a snare.

The English laws punish vice; the Chinese laws do more, they reward virtue.

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.

The reformative effect of punishment is a belief that dies hard, chiefly I think, because it is so satisfying to our sadistic impulses.

It is better that ten guilty persons escape, than that one innocent suffer.

Self is the only prison that can bind the soul.

I existed in a world that never is - the prison of the mind.

Fear can be like a prison. It is, however, a self made prison. Many are imprisoned by fear. No one else can liberate them from this prison. Others may inspire them but they must liberate themselves.

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.

Do not lay on the multitude the blame that is due to a few.

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

Some laws of state aimed at curbing crime are even more criminal.

I don't like jail, they got the wrong kind of bars in there.

I never saw a man who looked With such a wistful eye Upon that little tent of blue Which prisoners call the sky.

When is conduct a crime, and when is a crime not a crime? When Somebody Up There -- a monarch, a dictator, a Pope, a legislator -- so decrees.