The worst prison is not of stone. It is of a throbbing heart, outraged by an infamous life.
Liberty is rendered even more precious by the recollection of servitude.
No man should be judge in his own case.
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.
Justice renders to every one his due.
A man will be imprisoned in a room with a door that's unlocked and opens inwards, as long as it does not occur to him to pull rather than push.
Extreme justice is extreme injustice.
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.
Adversities such as being homeless and going to prison has made many people stronger.
Every crime has, in the moment of its perpetration, Its own avenging angel--dark misgiving, An ominous sinking at the inmost heart.
As we grow in wisdom, we pardon more freely.
Corporal punishment falls far more heavily than most weighty pecuniary penalty.
Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains.
Women now have choices. They can be married, not married, have a job, not have a job, be married with children, unmarried with children. Men have the same choice we've always had: work, or prison.
Written laws are like spiders' webs, and will, like them, only entangle and hold the poor and weak, while the rich and powerful will easily break through them.
Mere factual innocence is no reason not to carry out a death sentence properly reached.
Distrust all in whom the impulse to punish is powerful.
Justice is justice though it's always delayed and finally done only by mistake.
Nelson Mandela and Malcolm X came out of prison stronger.
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.
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.
Money will determine whether the accused goes to prison or walks out of the courtroom a free man.
It is impossible to go through life without trust: That is to be imprisoned in the worst cell of all, oneself.
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.
