When I was in prison, I was wrapped up in all those deep books. That Tolstoy crap - people shouldn't read that stuff.
I sometimes wish that people would put a little more emphasis upon the observance of the law than they do upon its enforcement.
Crime succeeds by sudden despatch; honest counsels gain vigor by delay.
Organized crime in America takes in over forty billion dollars a year. This is quite a profitable sum, especially when one considers that the Mafia spends very little for office supplies.
The only real prison is fear, and the only real freedom is freedom from fear.
There are only two places in the world where time takes precedence over the job to be done. School and prison.
I wrote a million words in the first year, and I could never have done that outside of prison.
America is the land of the second chance – and when the gates of the prison open, the path ahead should lead to a better life.
I never saw a man who looked With such a wistful eye Upon that little tent of blue Which prisoners call the sky.
It isn't true that convicts live like animals: animals have more room to move around.
Fear can be like a prison. It is, however, a self made prison. Many are imprisoned by fear. No one else can liberate them from this prison. Others may inspire them but they must liberate themselves.
Justice is that virtue of the soul which is distributive according to desert.
The thoughts of a prisoner - they're not free either. They keep returning to the same things.
There is no greater punishment of wickedness that that it is dissatisfied with itself and its deeds.
Society prepares the crime; the criminal commits it.
One of the many lessons that one learns in prison is, that things are what they are and will be what they will be.
Hanging was the worst use a man could be put to.
Once we are destined to live out our lives in the prison of our mind, our duty is to furnish it well.
Educate your children to self-control, to the habit of holding passion and prejudice and evil tendencies to an upright and reasoning will, and you have done much to abolish misery from their future lives and crimes to society.
Why would anyone expect him to come out smarter? He went to prison for three years, not Princeton.
The reformative effect of punishment is a belief that dies hard, chiefly I think, because it is so satisfying to our sadistic impulses.
We are prisoners of ideas.
No crime has been without a precedent.
Everyone is a prisoner of his own experiences. No one can eliminate prejudices - just recognize them.
I asked a man in prison once how he happened to be there and he said he had stolen a pair of shoes. I told him if he had stolen a railroad he would be a United States Senator.
