Quotes

As we grow in wisdom, we pardon more freely.

Prosecution I have managed to avoid; but I have been arrested, charged in a police court, have refused to be bound over, and thereupon have been unconditionally released - to my great regret; for I have always wanted to know what going to prison was like.

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.

By noiselessly going to a prison a civil-resister ensures a calm atmosphere.

Everyone is a prisoner of his own experiences. No one can eliminate prejudices - just recognize them.

I have paid no poll-tax for six years. I was put into a jail once on this account, for one night; and, as I stood considering the walls of solid stone, I could not help being struck with the foolishness of that institution which treated me as if I were mere flesh and blood and bones, to be locked up...I saw that, if there was a wall of stone between me and my townsmen, there was a still more difficult one to climb or break through, before they could get to be as free as I was. I did not for a moment feel confined, and the walls seemed a great waste of stone and mortar.

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

There is a point at which even justice does injury.

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

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.

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

What restrains us from killing is partly fear of punishment, partly moral scruple, and partly what may be described as a sense of humor.

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.

The guilt of enforced crimes lies on those who impose them.

In the halls of justice, the only justice is in the halls.

Prison, dungeons, blessed places where evil is impossible because they are the crossroads of all the evil in the world. One cannot commit evil in hell.

Pardon is the virtue of victory.

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.

To seek the redress of grievances by going to law, is like sheep running for shelter to a bramble bush.

Laws do not persuade just because they threaten.

Wicked deeds are generally done, even with impunity, for the mere desire of occupation.

When I was in prison, I was wrapped up in all those deep books. That Tolstoy crap - people shouldn't read that stuff.

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.

The penalty for laughing in a courtroom is six months in jail; if it were not for this penalty, the jury would never hear the evidence.

There are few better measures of the concern a society has for its individual members and its own well being than the way it handles criminals.