He had drawn many a thousand of these rations in prisons and camps, and though he'd never had an opportunity to weight them on scales, and although, being a man of timid nature, he knew no way of standing up for his rights, he, like every other prisoner, had discovered long ago that honest weight was never to be found in the bread-cutting. There was short weight in every ration. The only point was how short. So every day you took a look to soothe your soul - today, maybe, they haven't snitched any.
I have been studying how I may compare this prison where I live unto the world; Shut up in the prison of their own consciences.
A man who has no excuse for a crime, is indeed defenseless!
We shall not yield to violence. We shall not be deprived of union freedoms. We shall never agree with sending people to prison for their convictions.
A variety in punishment is of utility, as well as a proportion.
Crime is a logical extension of the sort of behavior that often [is] considered perfectly respectable in legitimate business.
Justice renders to every one his due.
Here the great art lies, to discern in what the law is to be to restraint and punishment, and in what things persuasion only is to work.
No crime has been without a precedent.
In a civilized society, all crimes are likely to be sins, but most sins are not and ought not to be treated as crimes.
Let us remember that justice must be observed even to the lowest.
They were being driven to a prison, through no fault of their own, in all probability for life. In comparison, how much easier it would be to walk to the gallows than to this tomb of living horrors!
Crimes lead one into another; they who are capable of being forgers are capable of being incendiaries.
Laws do not persuade just because they threaten.
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.
Man is condemned to be free.
Whatever is worthy to be loved for anything is worthy of preservation. A wise and dispassionate legislator, if any such should ever arise among men, will not condemn to death him who has done or is likely to do more service than injury to society. Blocks and gibbets are the nearest objects with legislators, and their business is never with hopes or with virtues.
The English laws punish vice; the Chinese laws do more, they reward virtue.
Kill a man, and you are an assassin. Kill millions of men, and you are a conqueror. Kill everyone, and you are a God.
When I was in prison, I was wrapped up in all those deep books. That Tolstoy crap - people shouldn't read that stuff.
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.
Two men look out the same prison bars; one sees mud and the other stars.
It is hard, but it is excellent, to find the right knowledge of when correction is necessary and when grace doth most avail.
Mere factual innocence is no reason not to carry out a death sentence properly reached.
