Crime is a logical extension of the sort of behavior that often [is] considered perfectly respectable in legitimate business.
The law does not pretend to punish everything that is dishonest. That would seriously interfere with business.
Laws grind the poor, and rich men rule the law.
Virtue pardons the wicked, as the sandal-tree perfumes the axe which strikes it.
Extreme justice is extreme injustice.
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.
Clemency alone makes us equal to the gods.
A variety in punishment is of utility, as well as a proportion.
Most people fancy themselves innocent of those crimes of which they cannot be convicted.
The torment of human frustration, whatever its immediate cause, is the knowledge that the self is in prison, its vital force and 'mangled mind' leaking away in lonely, wasteful self-conflict.
Justice is justice though it's always delayed and finally done only by mistake.
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.
What restrains us from killing is partly fear of punishment, partly moral scruple, and partly what may be described as a sense of humor.
Shyness is the prison of the heart.
When I was in prison, I was wrapped up in all those deep books. That Tolstoy crap - people shouldn't read that stuff.
The number of laws is constantly growing in all countries and, owing to this, what is called crime is very often not a crime at all, for it contains no element of violence or harm.
The worst of prison life, he thought, was not being able to close his door.
Everyone is a prisoner of his own experiences. No one can eliminate prejudices - just recognize them.
Justice is that virtue of the soul which is distributive according to desert.
If you share the crime of your friend, you make it your own.
If we look at Houston, which is a very environmentally toxic place, we find that it has one of the highest levels of young men going to prison and also among the highest levels of illiteracy in the country.
He had drawn many a thousand of these rations in prisons and camps, and though he'd never had an opportunity to weight them on scales, and although, being a man of timid nature, he knew no way of standing up for his rights, he, like every other prisoner, had discovered long ago that honest weight was never to be found in the bread-cutting. There was short weight in every ration. The only point was how short. So every day you took a look to soothe your soul - today, maybe, they haven't snitched any.
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.
I wrote a million words in the first year, and I could never have done that outside of prison.
