To my mind, to kill in war is not a whit
To my mind, to kill in war is not a whit better than to commit ordinary murder.
When is conduct a crime, and when is a
When is conduct a crime, and when is a crime not a crime? When Somebody Up There -- a monarch, a dictator, a Pope, a legislator -- so decrees.
The uneven impact of actual enforcement
The uneven impact of actual enforcement measures tends to mirror and reinforce more general patterns of discrimination (along socioeconomic, racial and ethnic, sexual, and perhaps generational lines) within the society. As a consequence, such enforcement (ineffective as it may be in producing conformity) almost certainly reinforces feelings of alienation already prevalent within major segments of the population.
Probably the only place where a man can
Probably the only place where a man can feel really secure is in a maximum security prison, except for the imminent threat of release.
Corporal punishment falls far more
Corporal punishment falls far more heavily than most weighty pecuniary penalty.
It becomes not a law-maker to be a
It becomes not a law-maker to be a law-breaker.
I have paid no poll-tax for six years. I
I have paid no poll-tax for six years. I was put into a jail once on this account, for one night; and, as I stood considering the walls of solid stone, I could not help being struck with the foolishness of that institution which treated me as if I were mere flesh and blood and bones, to be locked up...I saw that, if there was a wall of stone between me and my townsmen, there was a still more difficult one to climb or break through, before they could get to be as free as I was. I did not for a moment feel confined, and the walls seemed a great waste of stone and mortar.
The number of laws is constantly growing
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.
The degree of civilization in a society
The degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering its prisons.
When it comes to freedom, we are but
When it comes to freedom, we are but prisoners of our own desires.
A pedestal is as much a prison as any
A pedestal is as much a prison as any small, confined space.
Well does Heaven have care that no man
Well does Heaven have care that no man secures happiness by crime.
Well, I don't think prisons are the
Well, I don't think prisons are the answer to everything, obviously.
Wherever any one is against his will,
Wherever any one is against his will, that is to him a prison.
The only real prison is fear, and the
The only real prison is fear, and the only real freedom is freedom from fear.
Any punishment that does not correct,
Any punishment that does not correct, that can merely rouse rebellion in whoever has to endure it, is a piece of gratuitous infamy which makes those who impose it more guilty in the eyes of humanity, good sense and reason, nay a hundred times more guilty than the victim on whom the punishment is inflicted.
I have never been contained except I
I have never been contained except I made the prison.
By noiselessly going to a prison a
By noiselessly going to a prison a civil-resister ensures a calm atmosphere.
No crime has been without a precedent.
No crime has been without a precedent.
If we look at Houston, which is a very
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.
The world itself is but a large prison,
The world itself is but a large prison, out of which some are daily led to execution.
One crime is everything; two nothing.
One crime is everything; two nothing.
The torment of human frustration,
The torment of human frustration, whatever its immediate cause, is the knowledge that the self is in prison, its vital force and 'mangled mind' leaking away in lonely, wasteful self-conflict.
If you want total security, go to
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.
It is better that ten guilty persons
It is better that ten guilty persons escape, than that one innocent suffer.
