Quotes

Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains.

The reformative effect of punishment is a belief that dies hard, chiefly I think, because it is so satisfying to our sadistic impulses.

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

In a civilized society, all crimes are likely to be sins, but most sins are not and ought not to be treated as crimes.

When it comes to freedom, we are but prisoners of our own desires.

The English laws punish vice; the Chinese laws do more, they reward virtue.

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.

In the halls of justice, the only justice is in the halls.

It becomes not a law-maker to be a law-breaker.

It is true you cannot eat freedom and you cannot power machinery with democracy. But then neither can political prisoners turn on the light in the cells of a dictatorship.

A Sunday school is a prison in which children do penance for the evil conscience of their parents.

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.

A sick person is a prisoner.

It is the spirit and not the form of law that keeps justice alive.

The only effect of public punishment is to show the rabble how bravely it can be borne; and that every one who hath lost a toe-nail hath suffered worse.

Justice is that virtue of the soul which is distributive according to desert.

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.

Society has used the juvenile courts to create a caste system where there are throw-away people.

Some laws of state aimed at curbing crime are even more criminal.

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.

Once we are destined to live out our lives in the prison of our mind, our duty is to furnish it well.

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.

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.

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.

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