I have been studying how I may compare
I have been studying how I may compare this prison where I live unto the world; Shut up in the prison of their own consciences.
I never told a victim story about my
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.
I have never been contained except I
I have never been contained except I made the prison.
Society prepares the crime; the criminal
Society prepares the crime; the criminal commits it.
No matter how you seem to fatten on a
No matter how you seem to fatten on a crime, that can never be good for the bee which is bad for the hive.
Men are not prisoners of fate, but only
Men are not prisoners of fate, but only prisoners of their own minds.
The worst prison is not of stone. It is
The worst prison is not of stone. It is of a throbbing heart, outraged by an infamous life.
Steal goods and you’ll go to prison,
Steal goods and you’ll go to prison, steal lands and you are a king.
If it's near dinner-time, the foreman
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?
No obligation to justice does force a
No obligation to justice does force a man to be cruel, or to use the sharpest sentence.
Man is condemned to be free.
Man is condemned to be free.
Prison, dungeons, blessed places where
Prison, dungeons, blessed places where evil is impossible because they are the crossroads of all the evil in the world. One cannot commit evil in hell.
When it comes to freedom, we are but
When it comes to freedom, we are but prisoners of our own desires.
The common argument that crime is caused
The common argument that crime is caused by poverty is a kind of slander on the poor.
It is impossible to go through life
It is impossible to go through life without trust: That is to be imprisoned in the worst cell of all, oneself.
Faults of the head are punished in this
Faults of the head are punished in this world, those of the heart in another; but as most of our vices are compound, so also is their punishment.
We who live in prison, and in whose
We who live in prison, and in whose lives there is no event but sorrow, have to measure time by throbs of pain, and the record of bitter moments.
Body is a home, a prison and a grave.
Body is a home, a prison and a grave.
Laws do not persuade just because they
Laws do not persuade just because they threaten.
Mere factual innocence is no reason not
Mere factual innocence is no reason not to carry out a death sentence properly reached.
Liberty is rendered even more precious
Liberty is rendered even more precious by the recollection of servitude.
I never saw a man who looked With such a
I never saw a man who looked With such a wistful eye Upon that little tent of blue Which prisoners call the sky.
I know not whether laws be right, or
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.
Nothing can be more abhorrent to
Nothing can be more abhorrent to democracy than to imprison a person or keep him in prison because he is unpopular. This is really the test of civilization.
He who does not prevent a crime when he
He who does not prevent a crime when he can, encourages it.
