Quotes

A just chastisement may benefit a man, though it seldom does; but an unjust one changes all his blood to gall.

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

The perfection of a thing consists in its essence; there are perfect criminals, as there are men of perfect probity.

The punishment can be remitted; the crime is everlasting.

Laws grind the poor, and rich men rule the law.

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.

Since 1957, black people have experienced double-digit unemployment - in good times and bad times. Look at the population of African Americans in prison. They represent more than half the population of prisoners in the country, 55 percent of those on death row.

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

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.

Crimes lead one into another; they who are capable of being forgers are capable of being incendiaries.

Well does Heaven have care that no man secures happiness by crime.

It isn't true that convicts live like animals: animals have more room to move around.

I never told a victim story about my imprisonment. Instead, I told a transformation story - about how prison changed my outlook, about how I saw that communication, truth, and trust are at the heart of power.

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.

Care should be taken that the punishment does not exceed the guilt; and also that some men do not suffer for offenses for which others are not even indicted.

As we grow in wisdom, we pardon more freely.

The solution to our drug problem is not in incarceration.

The mellow sweetness of pumpkin pie off a prison spoon is something you will never forget.

The severest justice may not always be the best policy.

It is hard, but it is excellent, to find the right knowledge of when correction is necessary and when grace doth most avail.

It is the spirit and not the form of law that keeps justice alive.

Shyness is the prison of the heart.

A man will be imprisoned in a room with a door that's unlocked and opens inwards, as long as it does not occur to him to pull rather than push.

Experts and the educated elite have replaced what worked with what sounded good. Society was far more civilized before they took over our schools, prisons, welfare programs, police departments and courts. It's high time we ran these people out of our lives and went back to common sense.

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