Quotes

The law does not pretend to punish everything that is dishonest. That would seriously interfere with business.

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.

And while God had work for Paul, he found him friends both in court and prison. Let persecutors send saints to prison, God can provide a keeper for their turn.

Vices are not crimes.

Some laws of state aimed at curbing crime are even more criminal.

America is the land of the second chance – and when the gates of the prison open, the path ahead should lead to a better life.

I submit that an individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for the law.

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.

The degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering its prisons.

If we were brought to trial for the crimes we have committed against ourselves, few would escape the gallows.

It is not at the table, but in prison, that you learn who your true friends are.

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.

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

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

Corporal punishment falls far more heavily than most weighty pecuniary penalty.

Kill a man, and you are an assassin. Kill millions of men, and you are a conqueror. Kill everyone, and you are a God.

Show me the prison, Show me the jail, Show me the prisoner whose life has gone stale. And I'll show you a young man with so many reasons why And there, but for fortune, go you or I.

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

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

Written laws are like spiders' webs, and will, like them, only entangle and hold the poor and weak, while the rich and powerful will easily break through them.

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.

Whatever you think of de Sade, he was a complex figure and we should not look for easy answers with him. He was, strangely perhaps, against the death penalty, and he was never put in prison for murders or anything like that.

Overlook our deeds, since you know that crime was absent from our inclination.

I sometimes wish that people would put a little more emphasis upon the observance of the law than they do upon its enforcement.

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.