Quotes

Once we are destined to live out our lives in the prison of our mind, our duty is to furnish it well.

What is crime amongst the multitude, is only vice among the few.

Clemency alone makes us equal to the gods.

Reality becomes a prison to those who can’t get out of it.

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.

What restrains us from killing is partly fear of punishment, partly moral scruple, and partly what may be described as a sense of humor.

Two men look out the same prison bars; one sees mud and the other stars.

We don't seem to be able to check crime, so why not legalize it and then tax it out of business.

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

Crime succeeds by sudden despatch; honest counsels gain vigor by delay.

It isn't true that convicts live like animals: animals have more room to move around.

As we grow in wisdom, we pardon more freely.

The only real prison is fear, and the only real freedom is freedom from fear.

It is certain that the study of human psychology, if it were undertaken exclusively in prisons, would also lead to misrepresentation and absurd generalizations.

In the halls of justice, the only justice is in the halls.

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.

The degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering its prisons.

Fear can be like a prison. It is, however, a self made prison. Many are imprisoned by fear. No one else can liberate them from this prison. Others may inspire them but they must liberate themselves.

Before we can diminish our sufferings from the ill-controlled aggressive assaults of fellow citizens, we must renounce the philosophy of punishment, the obsolete, vengeful penal attitude. In its place we would seek a comprehensive, constructive social attitude - therapeutic in some instances, restraining in some instances, but preventive in its total social impact. In the last analysis this becomes a question of personal morals and values. No matter how glorified or how piously disguised, vengeance as a human motive must be personally repudiated by each and every one of us.

So justice while she winks at crimes, Stumbles on innocence sometimes.

Whatever is worthy to be loved for anything is worthy of preservation. A wise and dispassionate legislator, if any such should ever arise among men, will not condemn to death him who has done or is likely to do more service than injury to society. Blocks and gibbets are the nearest objects with legislators, and their business is never with hopes or with virtues.

One should respect public opinion insofar as is necessary to avoid starvation and keep out of prison, but anything that goes beyond this is voluntary submission to an unnecessary tyranny.

While crime is punished it yet increases.

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.

It is impossible to go through life without trust: That is to be imprisoned in the worst cell of all, oneself.