A just chastisement may benefit a man, though it seldom does; but an unjust one changes all his blood to gall.
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.
A man who has no excuse for a crime, is indeed defenseless!
In the halls of justice, the only justice is in the halls.
They're not supposed to show prison films in prison. Especially ones that are about escaping.
How dreadful it is when the right judge judges wrong.
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.
It is not at the table, but in prison, that you learn who your true friends are.
Crimes lead one into another; they who are capable of being forgers are capable of being incendiaries.
Forgiveness, that noblest of all self-denial, is a virtue which he alone who can practise in himself can willingly believe in another.
I was in prison, and you came unto me. Verily I say unto you, inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.
~(Jesus Christ) Matthew 25:36, 40
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.
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.
Oh who is that young sinner with the handcuffs on his wrist? And what has he been after that they groan and shake their fists? And wherefore is he wearing such a conscience-stricken air? Oh they're taking him to prison for the colour of his hair.
No matter how you seem to fatten on a crime, that can never be good for the bee which is bad for the hive.
I never saw a man who looked With such a wistful eye Upon that little tent of blue Which prisoners call the sky.
While crime is punished it yet increases.
Once we are destined to live out our lives in the prison of our mind, our duty is to furnish it well.
The punishment can be remitted; the crime is everlasting.
The thoughts of a prisoner - they're not free either. They keep returning to the same things.
Whatever is worthy to be loved for anything is worthy of preservation. A wise and dispassionate legislator, if any such should ever arise among men, will not condemn to death him who has done or is likely to do more service than injury to society. Blocks and gibbets are the nearest objects with legislators, and their business is never with hopes or with virtues.
He who profits by a crime commits it.
Since 1957, black people have experienced double-digit unemployment - in good times and bad times. Look at the population of African Americans in prison. They represent more than half the population of prisoners in the country, 55 percent of those on death row.
No written law has been more binding than unwritten custom supported by popular opinion.
