Quotes

The only difference between me and my fellow actors is that I've spent more time in jail.

When you are younger you get blamed for crimes you never committed and when you're older you begin to get credit for virtues you never possessed. It evens itself out.

Assassination is the extreme form of censorship.

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.

I know not whether laws be right, or whether laws be wrong; All that we know who lie in gaol is that the wall is strong; And that each day is like a year, a year whose days are long.

In jail a man has no personality. He is a minor disposal problem and a few entries on reports. Nobody cares who loves or hates him, what he looks like, what he did with his life. Nobody reacts to him unless he gives trouble. Nobody abuses him. All that is asked of him is that he go quietly to the right cell and remain quiet when he gets there. There is nothing to fight against, nothing to be mad at. The jailers are quiet men without animosity or sadism.

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.

Experts and the educated elite have replaced what worked with what sounded good. Society was far more civilized before they took over our schools, prisons, welfare programs, police departments and courts. It's high time we ran these people out of our lives and went back to common sense.

By noiselessly going to a prison a civil-resister ensures a calm atmosphere.

Justice is that virtue of the soul which is distributive according to desert.

I never saw a man who looked With such a wistful eye Upon that little tent of blue Which prisoners call the sky.

There is no greater punishment of wickedness that that it is dissatisfied with itself and its deeds.

Clemency alone makes us equal to the gods.

The public have more interest in the punishment of an injury than he who receives it.

The English laws punish vice; the Chinese laws do more, they reward virtue.

Crimes generally punish themselves.

While crime is punished it yet increases.

I am certain that nothing has done so much to destroy the juridical safeguards of individual freedom as the striving after this mirage of social justice.

In my country we go to prison first and then become President.

No crime has been without a precedent.

I just remember that disturbing feeling of walking into that prison, the complete loss of privacy, the complete loss of stimulation, dignity.

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.

History is full of people who went to prison or were burned at the stake for proclaiming their ideas. Society has always defended itself.

Crimes lead one into another; they who are capable of being forgers are capable of being incendiaries.

He who profits by a crime commits it.