The world itself is but a large prison, out of which some are daily led to execution.
To seek the redress of grievances by going to law, is like sheep running for shelter to a bramble bush.
A just chastisement may benefit a man, though it seldom does; but an unjust one changes all his blood to gall.
There are few better measures of the concern a society has for its individual members and its own well being than the way it handles criminals.
If you strike at, imprison, or kill us, out of our prisons or graves we will still evoke a spirit that will thwart you, and perhaps, raise a force that will destroy you! We defy you! Do your worst!
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
Prison makes you a better judge of character. You pick up on people much faster.
Nor cell, nor chain, nor dungeon speaks to the murderer like the voice of solitude.
When it comes to freedom, we are but prisoners of our own desires.
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.
I have never been contained except I made the prison.
Pardon is the virtue of victory.
Hard cases, it is said, make bad law.
If we were brought to trial for the crimes we have committed against ourselves, few would escape the gallows.
Why would anyone expect him to come out smarter? He went to prison for three years, not Princeton.
To be at peace in crime! Ah, who can thus flatter himself.
One man meets an infamous punishment for that crime which confers a diadem upon another.
In a civilized society, all crimes are likely to be sins, but most sins are not and ought not to be treated as crimes.
The virtue of justice consists in moderation, as regulated by wisdom.
The idea that the sole aim of punishment is to prevent crime is obviously grounded upon the theory that crime can be prevented, which is almost as dubious as the notion that poverty can be prevented.
When I was in prison, I was wrapped up in all those deep books. That Tolstoy crap - people shouldn't read that stuff.
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.
Justice is that virtue of the soul which is distributive according to desert.
Nor stony tower, nor walls of beaten brass, Nor airless dungeon, nor strong links of iron, Can be retentive to the strength of spirit; But life, being weary of these worldly bars, Never lacks power to dismiss itself.
Mere factual innocence is no reason not to carry out a death sentence properly reached.
