Any punishment that does not correct, that can merely rouse rebellion in whoever has to endure it, is a piece of gratuitous infamy which makes those who impose it more guilty in the eyes of humanity, good sense and reason, nay a hundred times more guilty than the victim on whom the punishment is inflicted.
The perfection of a thing consists in its essence; there are perfect criminals, as there are men of perfect probity.
When I was in prison, I was wrapped up in all those deep books. That Tolstoy crap - people shouldn't read that stuff.
I know how men in exile feed on dreams of hope.
One crime has to be concealed by another.
Prison makes you a better judge of character. You pick up on people much faster.
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.
One of the many lessons that one learns in prison is, that things are what they are and will be what they will be.
You stuff somebody into the American dream, and it becomes a prison.
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.
We don't seem to be able to check crime, so why not legalize it and then tax it out of business.
Clemency alone makes us equal to the gods.
America is the land of the second chance – and when the gates of the prison open, the path ahead should lead to a better life.
Virtue pardons the wicked, as the sandal-tree perfumes the axe which strikes it.
Those magistrates who can prevent crime, and do not, in effect encourage it.
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.
When it comes to freedom, we are but prisoners of our own desires.
A just chastisement may benefit a man, though it seldom does; but an unjust one changes all his blood to gall.
It is the spirit and not the form of law that keeps justice alive.
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.
When I was in prison, I was wrapped up in all those deep books. That Tolstoy crap - people shouldn't read that stuff.
No man should be judge in his own case.
Only free men can negotiate. Prisoners cannot enter into contracts.
No crime has been without a precedent.
There is no greater punishment of wickedness that that it is dissatisfied with itself and its deeds.
