You stuff somebody into the American dream, and it becomes a prison.
It is hard, but it is excellent, to find the right knowledge of when correction is necessary and when grace doth most avail.
The worst of prison life, he thought, was not being able to close his door.
I don't like jail, they got the wrong kind of bars in there.
Nor stony tower, nor walls of beaten brass, Nor airless dungeon, nor strong links of iron, Can be retentive to the strength of spirit; But life, being weary of these worldly bars, Never lacks power to dismiss itself.
I asked a man in prison once how he happened to be there and he said he had stolen a pair of shoes. I told him if he had stolen a railroad he would be a United States Senator.
I have never been contained except I made the prison.
Laws do not persuade just because they threaten.
The object of punishment is prevention from evil; it never can be made impulsive to good.
A man who has no excuse for a crime, is indeed defenseless!
Crime is a logical extension of the sort of behavior that often [is] considered perfectly respectable in legitimate business.
A pedestal is as much a prison as any small, confined space.
There is no peace because the making of peace is at least as costly as the making of war - at least as exigent, at least as disruptive, at least as liable to bring disgrace and prison and death in its wake.
Justice renders to every one his due.
We shall fight against them, throw them in prisons and destroy them.
Crimes lead one into another; they who are capable of being forgers are capable of being incendiaries.
A man will be imprisoned in a room with a door that's unlocked and opens inwards, as long as it does not occur to him to pull rather than push.
So justice while she winks at crimes, Stumbles on innocence sometimes.
The reformative effect of punishment is a belief that dies hard, chiefly I think, because it is so satisfying to our sadistic impulses.
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.
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.
Show me the prison, Show me the jail, Show me the prisoner whose life has gone stale. And I'll show you a young man with so many reasons why And there, but for fortune, go you or I.
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.
No crime has been without a precedent.
A country is in a bad state, which is governed only by laws; because a thousand things occur for which laws cannot provide, and where authority ought to interpose.
