The degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering its prisons.
To make punishments efficacious, two things are necessary. They must never be disproportioned to the offence, and they must be certain.
When you are younger you get blamed for crimes you never committed and when you're older you begin to get credit for virtues you never possessed. It evens itself out.
A variety in punishment is of utility, as well as a proportion.
The English laws punish vice; the Chinese laws do more, they reward virtue.
Everyone is a prisoner of his own experiences. No one can eliminate prejudices - just recognize them.
Vices are not crimes.
Taught from infancy that beauty is woman's sceptre, the mind shapes itself to the body, and roaming round its gilt cage, only seeks to adorn its prison.
When I was in prison, I was wrapped up in all those deep books. That Tolstoy crap - people shouldn't read that stuff.
I never saw a man who looked With such a wistful eye Upon that little tent of blue Which prisoners call the sky.
The world itself is but a large prison, out of which some are daily led to execution.
We are prisoners of ideas.
They're not supposed to show prison films in prison. Especially ones that are about escaping.
Wherever any one is against his will, that is to him a prison.
One man meets an infamous punishment for that crime which confers a diadem upon another.
When I was in prison, I was wrapped up in all those deep books. That Tolstoy crap - people shouldn't read that stuff.
Every crime has, in the moment of its perpetration, Its own avenging angel--dark misgiving, An ominous sinking at the inmost heart.
Justice is that virtue of the soul which is distributive according to desert.
Probably the only place where a man can feel really secure is in a maximum security prison, except for the imminent threat of release.
It is better that ten guilty persons escape, than that one innocent suffer.
Once we are destined to live out our lives in the prison of our mind, our duty is to furnish it well.
While we have prisons it matters little which of us occupy the cells.
I was in prison, and you came unto me. Verily I say unto you, inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.
~(Jesus Christ) Matthew 25:36, 40
I never told a victim story about my imprisonment. Instead, I told a transformation story - about how prison changed my outlook, about how I saw that communication, truth, and trust are at the heart of power.
Self is the only prison that can bind the soul.
