A pedestal is as much a prison as any small, confined space.
Concepts of justice must have hands and feet to carry out justice in every case in the shortest possible time and the lowest possible cost. That is the challenge to every lawyer and judge in America.
I wrote a million words in the first year, and I could never have done that outside of prison.
Man is condemned to be free.
There is no peace because the making of peace is at least as costly as the making of war - at least as exigent, at least as disruptive, at least as liable to bring disgrace and prison and death in its wake.
To seek the redress of grievances by going to law, is like sheep running for shelter to a bramble bush.
The idea that the sole aim of punishment is to prevent crime is obviously grounded upon the theory that crime can be prevented, which is almost as dubious as the notion that poverty can be prevented.
The thoughts of a prisoner - they're not free either. They keep returning to the same things.
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.
Crime is a logical extension of the sort of behavior that often [is] considered perfectly respectable in legitimate business.
In the halls of justice, the only justice is in the halls.
Shyness is the prison of the heart.
Since 1957, black people have experienced double-digit unemployment - in good times and bad times. Look at the population of African Americans in prison. They represent more than half the population of prisoners in the country, 55 percent of those on death row.
Hard cases, it is said, make bad law.
Virtue pardons the wicked, as the sandal-tree perfumes the axe which strikes it.
Two men look out the same prison bars; one sees mud and the other stars.
When the Nazis came for the communists, I remained silent; I was not a communist. When they locked up the social democrats, I remained silent; I was not a social democrat. When they came for the trade unionists, I did not speak out; I was not a trade unionist. When they came for me, there was no one left to speak out.
Every instance of a man's suffering the penalty of the law is an instance of the failure of that penalty in effecting its purpose, which is to deter.
He who does not prevent a crime when he can, encourages it.
We have our own system, ... and journalists in our system are not put in prison for embarrassing the government by revealing things the government might not wish to have revealed. The important thing is that our system, under which journalists can write without fear or favor, should continue.
When I was in prison, I was wrapped up in all those deep books. That Tolstoy crap - people shouldn't read that stuff.
The most anxious man in a prison is the governor.
If we look at Houston, which is a very environmentally toxic place, we find that it has one of the highest levels of young men going to prison and also among the highest levels of illiteracy in the country.
Laws do not persuade just because they threaten.
Liberty is rendered even more precious by the recollection of servitude.