It is hard, but it is excellent, to find the right knowledge of when correction is necessary and when grace doth most avail.
Here the great art lies, to discern in what the law is to be to restraint and punishment, and in what things persuasion only is to work.
One crime has to be concealed by another.
Women have worked hard; starved in prison; given of their time and lives that we might sit in the House of Commons and take part in the legislating of this country.
He who opens a school door, closes a prison.
The common argument that crime is caused by poverty is a kind of slander on the poor.
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.
They were being driven to a prison, through no fault of their own, in all probability for life. In comparison, how much easier it would be to walk to the gallows than to this tomb of living horrors!
Some laws of state aimed at curbing crime are even more criminal.
If you strike at, imprison, or kill us, out of our prisons or graves we will still evoke a spirit that will thwart you, and perhaps, raise a force that will destroy you! We defy you! Do your worst!
To be at peace in crime! Ah, who can thus flatter himself.
No crime has been without a precedent.
When I was in prison, I was wrapped up in all those deep books. That Tolstoy crap - people shouldn't read that stuff.
The object of punishment is prevention from evil; it never can be made impulsive to good.
It is more dangerous that even a guilty person should be punished without the forms of law than that he should escape.
To make punishments efficacious, two things are necessary. They must never be disproportioned to the offence, and they must be certain.
Well, I don't think prisons are the answer to everything, obviously.
The worst of prison life, he thought, was not being able to close his door.
Laws do not persuade just because they threaten.
I can work for the Lord in or out of prison.
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.
Whatever you think of de Sade, he was a complex figure and we should not look for easy answers with him. He was, strangely perhaps, against the death penalty, and he was never put in prison for murders or anything like that.
It is the spirit and not the form of law that keeps justice alive.
Adversities such as being homeless and going to prison has made many people stronger.
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.
