Quotes

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

We have our own system, ... and journalists in our system are not put in prison for embarrassing the government by revealing things the government might not wish to have revealed. The important thing is that our system, under which journalists can write without fear or favor, should continue.

When the Nazis came for the communists, I remained silent; I was not a communist. When they locked up the social democrats, I remained silent; I was not a social democrat. When they came for the trade unionists, I did not speak out; I was not a trade unionist. When they came for me, there was no one left to speak out.

The number of laws is constantly growing in all countries and, owing to this, what is called crime is very often not a crime at all, for it contains no element of violence or harm.

Reality becomes a prison to those who can’t get out of it.

The only real prison is fear, and the only real freedom is freedom from fear.

Federal prison, if you get any of it, you're going to have to do 85% of it. And the reason why I called it that is because I had a friend who got sent to the federal joint and his whole... it wasn't about him being in jail. He cried about the 85%.

It is certain that the study of human psychology, if it were undertaken exclusively in prisons, would also lead to misrepresentation and absurd generalizations.

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

The most anxious man in a prison is the governor.

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!

Once we are destined to live out our lives in the prison of our mind, our duty is to furnish it well.

It was only when I lay there on the rotting prison straw that I sensed within myself the first stirrings of good. Gradually it was disclosed to me that the line separating good and evil passes not between states nor between social classes nor between political parties, but right through every human heart, through all human hearts. And that is why I turn back to the years of my imprisonment and say, sometimes to the astonishment of those about me, bless you, prison, for having been a part of my life.

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

The severest justice may not always be the best policy.

Any punishment that does not correct, that can merely rouse rebellion in whoever has to endure it, is a piece of gratuitous infamy which makes those who impose it more guilty in the eyes of humanity, good sense and reason, nay a hundred times more guilty than the victim on whom the punishment is inflicted.

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

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

What is crime amongst the multitude, is only vice among the few.

While we have prisons it matters little which of us occupy the cells.

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

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.

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.

Hanging was the worst use a man could be put to.

While crime is punished it yet increases.