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.
To be at peace in crime! Ah, who can thus flatter himself.
No man should be judge in his own case.
If we were brought to trial for the crimes we have committed against ourselves, few would escape the gallows.
Probably the only place where a man can feel really secure is in a maximum security prison, except for the imminent threat of release.
The worst of prison life, he thought, was not being able to close his door.
To seek the redress of grievances by going to law, is like sheep running for shelter to a bramble bush.
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.
Fast closed with double grills And triple gates–the cell To wicked souls is hell; But to a mind that's innocent 'Tis only iron, wood and stone.
It becomes not a law-maker to be a law-breaker.
The penalty for laughing in a courtroom is six months in jail; if it were not for this penalty, the jury would never hear the evidence.
Distrust all in whom the impulse to punish is powerful.
The English laws punish vice; the Chinese laws do more, they reward virtue.
Civilization is maintained by a very few people in a small number of places and we need only some bombs and a few prisons to blot it out altogether.
There is a point at which even justice does injury.
The only real prison is fear, and the only real freedom is freedom from fear.
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.
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.
The difference between tax avoidance and tax evasion is the thickness of a prison walls.
Justice is that virtue of the soul which is distributive according to desert.
Clemency alone makes us equal to the gods.
Body is a home, a prison and a grave.
Everyone is a prisoner of his own experiences. No one can eliminate prejudices - just recognize them.
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.
No written law has been more binding than unwritten custom supported by popular opinion.
