Some laws of state aimed at curbing crime are even more criminal.
To my mind, to kill in war is not a whit better than to commit ordinary murder.
Everyone is a prisoner of his own experiences. No one can eliminate prejudices - just recognize them.
Assassination is the extreme form of censorship.
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.
I have been studying how I may compare This prison where I live unto the world; And, for because the world is populous, And here is not a creature but myself, I cannot do it. Yet I'll hammer it out.
If we were brought to trial for the crimes we have committed against ourselves, few would escape the gallows.
Reality becomes a prison to those who can’t get out of it.
It is better that ten guilty persons escape, than that one innocent suffer.
The guilt of enforced crimes lies on those who impose them.
It is impossible to go through life without trust: That is to be imprisoned in the worst cell of all, oneself.
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.
A pedestal is as much a prison as any small, confined space.
What restrains us from killing is partly fear of punishment, partly moral scruple, and partly what may be described as a sense of humor.
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.
When I was in prison, I was wrapped up in all those deep books. That Tolstoy crap - people shouldn't read that stuff.
We are prisoners of ideas.
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.
In a civilized society, all crimes are likely to be sins, but most sins are not and ought not to be treated as crimes.
In prison, you get the chance to see who really loves you.
Well does Heaven have care that no man secures happiness by crime.
Fear can be like a prison. It is, however, a self made prison. Many are imprisoned by fear. No one else can liberate them from this prison. Others may inspire them but they must liberate themselves.
We don't seem to be able to check crime, so why not legalize it and then tax it out of business.
Why would anyone expect him to come out smarter? He went to prison for three years, not Princeton.
Liberty is rendered even more precious by the recollection of servitude.
