Quotes

Concepts of justice must have hands and feet to carry out justice in every case in the shortest possible time and the lowest possible cost. That is the challenge to every lawyer and judge in America.

Pardon is the virtue of victory.

Nothing can be more abhorrent to democracy than to imprison a person or keep him in prison because he is unpopular. This is really the test of civilization.

One of the many lessons that one learns in prison is, that things are what they are and will be what they will be.

No obligation to justice does force a man to be cruel, or to use the sharpest sentence.

Justice is justice though it's always delayed and finally done only by mistake.

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

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.

To make punishments efficacious, two things are necessary. They must never be disproportioned to the offence, and they must be certain.

One should respect public opinion insofar as is necessary to avoid starvation and keep out of prison, but anything that goes beyond this is voluntary submission to an unnecessary tyranny.

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.

No man should be judge in his own case.

Oh who is that young sinner with the handcuffs on his wrist? And what has he been after that they groan and shake their fists? And wherefore is he wearing such a conscience-stricken air? Oh they're taking him to prison for the colour of his hair.

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

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.

I know how men in exile feed on dreams of hope.

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

Women now have choices. They can be married, not married, have a job, not have a job, be married with children, unmarried with children. Men have the same choice we've always had: work, or prison.

Men are not prisoners of fate, but only prisoners of their own minds.

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

Clemency alone makes us equal to the gods.

There is no peace because the making of peace is at least as costly as the making of war - at least as exigent, at least as disruptive, at least as liable to bring disgrace and prison and death in its wake.

Wherever any one is against his will, that is to him a prison.

Justice renders to every one his due.

Prison makes you a better judge of character. You pick up on people much faster.