The perfection of a thing consists in
The perfection of a thing consists in its essence; there are perfect criminals, as there are men of perfect probity.
Corporal punishment falls far more
Corporal punishment falls far more heavily than most weighty pecuniary penalty.
I don't like being famous - it is like a
I don't like being famous - it is like a prison. And driving for Ferrari would make it far worse.
Why would anyone expect him to come out
Why would anyone expect him to come out smarter? He went to prison for three years, not Princeton.
The most anxious man in a prison is the
The most anxious man in a prison is the governor.
When it comes to freedom, we are but
When it comes to freedom, we are but prisoners of our own desires.
In jail a man has no personality. He is
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.
He who does not prevent a crime when he
He who does not prevent a crime when he can, encourages it.
It is hard, but it is excellent, to find
It is hard, but it is excellent, to find the right knowledge of when correction is necessary and when grace doth most avail.
I don't like jail, they got the wrong
I don't like jail, they got the wrong kind of bars in there.
It was only when I lay there on the
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.
It is true you cannot eat freedom and
It is true you cannot eat freedom and you cannot power machinery with democracy. But then neither can political prisoners turn on the light in the cells of a dictatorship.
No written law has been more binding
No written law has been more binding than unwritten custom supported by popular opinion.
Justice is justice though it's always
Justice is justice though it's always delayed and finally done only by mistake.
Law is merely the expression of the will
Law is merely the expression of the will of the strongest for the time being, and therefore laws have no fixity, but shift from generation to generation.
Overlook our deeds, since you know that
Overlook our deeds, since you know that crime was absent from our inclination.
He who opens a school door, closes a
He who opens a school door, closes a prison.
Steal goods and you’ll go to prison,
Steal goods and you’ll go to prison, steal lands and you are a king.
I know how men in exile feed on dreams
I know how men in exile feed on dreams of hope.
One crime has to be concealed by
One crime has to be concealed by another.
Our task must be to free ourselves from
Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circles of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.
In prisons, those things withheld from
In prisons, those things withheld from and denied to the prisoner become precisely what he wants most of all.
Prison, dungeons, blessed places where
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.
Man is condemned to be free.
Man is condemned to be free.
The common argument that crime is caused
The common argument that crime is caused by poverty is a kind of slander on the poor.
