Quotes

The object of punishment is prevention from evil; it never can be made impulsive to good.

And while God had work for Paul, he found him friends both in court and prison. Let persecutors send saints to prison, God can provide a keeper for their turn.

The severest justice may not always be the best policy.

To seek the redress of grievances by going to law, is like sheep running for shelter to a bramble bush.

Well does Heaven have care that no man secures happiness by crime.

Crimes lead one into another; they who are capable of being forgers are capable of being incendiaries.

I was put into jail as I was going to the shoemaker's to get a shoe which was mended. When I was let out the next morning, I proceeded to finish my errand, and, having put on my mended shoe, joined a huckleberry party, who were impatient to put themselves under my conduct; and in half an hour -- for the horse was soon tackled -- was in the midst of a huckleberry field, on one of our highest hills, two miles off, and then the State was nowhere to be seen.

Forgiveness, that noblest of all self-denial, is a virtue which he alone who can practise in himself can willingly believe in another.

The refined punishments of the spiritual mode are usually much more indecent and dangerous than a good smack.

Law is merely the expression of the will of the strongest for the time being, and therefore laws have no fixity, but shift from generation to generation.

The mellow sweetness of pumpkin pie off a prison spoon is something you will never forget.

He who does not prevent a crime when he can, encourages it.

It was only when I lay there on the rotting prison straw that I sensed within myself the first stirrings of good. Gradually it was disclosed to me that the line separating good and evil passes not between states nor between social classes nor between political parties, but right through every human heart, through all human hearts. And that is why I turn back to the years of my imprisonment and say, sometimes to the astonishment of those about me, bless you, prison, for having been a part of my life.

A variety in punishment is of utility, as well as a proportion.

Concepts of justice must have hands and feet to carry out justice in every case in the shortest possible time and the lowest possible cost. That is the challenge to every lawyer and judge in America.

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.

Prosecution I have managed to avoid; but I have been arrested, charged in a police court, have refused to be bound over, and thereupon have been unconditionally released - to my great regret; for I have always wanted to know what going to prison was like.

One crime is everything; two nothing.

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.

Man is condemned to be free.

We don't seem to be able to check crime, so why not legalize it and then tax it out of business.

So justice while she winks at crimes, Stumbles on innocence sometimes.

Only free men can negotiate. Prisoners cannot enter into contracts.

If punishment reaches not the mind and makes not the will supple, it hardens the offender.

No written law has been more binding than unwritten custom supported by popular opinion.