Quotes

The most anxious man in a prison is the governor.

Forgiveness, that noblest of all self-denial, is a virtue which he alone who can practise in himself can willingly believe in another.

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.

Laws grind the poor, and rich men rule the law.

The refined punishments of the spiritual mode are usually much more indecent and dangerous than a good smack.

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

Distrust all in whom the impulse to punish is powerful.

He was a first-time nonviolent possible offender, ... And under the mandatory minimums, he was put in prison for 15 years. Not only does the punishment not fit the crime, but the mandatory minimums don't give judges any discretion to look at the background of the case, to read into the specifics of the case. I don't know a judge who really is in favor of the mandatory minimums.

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.

History is full of people who went to prison or were burned at the stake for proclaiming their ideas. Society has always defended itself.

I was put into jail as I was going to the shoemaker's to get a shoe which was mended. When I was let out the next morning, I proceeded to finish my errand, and, having put on my mended shoe, joined a huckleberry party, who were impatient to put themselves under my conduct; and in half an hour -- for the horse was soon tackled -- was in the midst of a huckleberry field, on one of our highest hills, two miles off, and then the State was nowhere to be seen.

In a civilized society, all crimes are likely to be sins, but most sins are not and ought not to be treated as crimes.

The reformative effect of punishment is a belief that dies hard, chiefly I think, because it is so satisfying to our sadistic impulses.

I wrote a million words in the first year, and I could never have done that outside of prison.

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

The contagion of crime is like that of the plague. Criminals collected together corrupt each other; they are worse than ever when at the termination of their punishment they re-enter society.

If you want total security, go to prison. There you’re fed, clothed, given medical care and so on. The only thing lacking…is freedom.

I am an expert of electricity. My father occupied the chair of applied electricity at the state prison.

A variety in punishment is of utility, as well as a proportion.

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.

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 worst of prison life, he thought, was not being able to close his door.

Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains.

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.

Wicked deeds are generally done, even with impunity, for the mere desire of occupation.