Well does Heaven have care that no man secures happiness by crime.
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.
Laws grind the poor, and rich men rule the law.
Wicked deeds are generally done, even with impunity, for the mere desire of occupation.
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.
Three hundred years ago a prisoner condemned to the Tower of London carved on the wall of his cell this sentiment to keep up his spirits during his long imprisonment: “It is not adversity that kills, but the impatience with which we bear adversity.”
Wherever any one is against his will, that is to him a prison.
No matter how you seem to fatten on a crime, that can never be good for the bee which is bad for the hive.
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.
Prisons don't rehabilitate, they don't punish, they don't protect, so what the hell do they do?
There are only two places in the world where time takes precedence over the job to be done. School and prison.
To be in prison so long, it's difficult to remember exactly what you did to get there.
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.
If it's near dinner-time, the foreman takes out his watch when the jury has retired, and says: "Dear me, gentlemen, ten minutes to five, I declare! I dine at five, gentlemen." "So do I," says everybody else, except two men who ought to have dined at three and seem more than half disposed to stand out in consequence. The foreman smiles, and puts up his watch:--"Well, gentlemen, what do we say, plaintiff or defendant, gentlemen?
When I was in prison, I was wrapped up in all those deep books. That Tolstoy crap - people shouldn't read that stuff.
As we grow in wisdom, we pardon more freely.
To be at peace in crime! Ah, who can thus flatter himself.
I never saw a man who looked With such a wistful eye Upon that little tent of blue Which prisoners call the sky.
Crimes generally punish themselves.
The law does not pretend to punish everything that is dishonest. That would seriously interfere with business.
I have been studying how I may compare This prison where I live unto the world; And, for because the world is populous, And here is not a creature but myself, I cannot do it. Yet I'll hammer it out.
Most people fancy themselves innocent of those crimes of which they cannot be convicted.
One of the many lessons that one learns in prison is, that things are what they are and will be what they will be.
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.
Man is condemned to be free.
