Nelson Mandela and Malcolm X came out of prison stronger.
By noiselessly going to a prison a civil-resister ensures a calm atmosphere.
Assassination is the extreme form of censorship.
One crime has to be concealed by another.
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.
The reformative effect of punishment is a belief that dies hard, chiefly I think, because it is so satisfying to our sadistic impulses.
The contagion of crime is like that of the plague. Criminals collected together corrupt each other; they are worse than ever when at the termination of their punishment they re-enter society.
Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.
In the halls of justice, the only justice is in the halls.
Man is condemned to be free.
Some laws of state aimed at curbing crime are even more criminal.
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.
As we grow in wisdom, we pardon more freely.
Crimes lead one into another; they who are capable of being forgers are capable of being incendiaries.
While crime is punished it yet increases.
When I was in prison, I was wrapped up in all those deep books. That Tolstoy crap - people shouldn't read that stuff.
There is no greater punishment of wickedness that that it is dissatisfied with itself and its deeds.
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.
Well, I don't think prisons are the answer to everything, obviously.
Two men look out the same prison bars; one sees mud and the other stars.
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.
Let us remember that justice must be observed even to the lowest.
It becomes not a law-maker to be a law-breaker.
No crime has been without a precedent.
It is hard, but it is excellent, to find the right knowledge of when correction is necessary and when grace doth most avail.
