Quotes

The world itself is but a large prison, out of which some are daily led to execution.

Hanging was the worst use a man could be put to.

The solution to our drug problem is not in incarceration.

It is impossible to go through life without trust: That is to be imprisoned in the worst cell of all, oneself.

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.

Probably the only place where a man can feel really secure is in a maximum security prison, except for the imminent threat of release.

I have paid no poll-tax for six years. I was put into a jail once on this account, for one night; and, as I stood considering the walls of solid stone, I could not help being struck with the foolishness of that institution which treated me as if I were mere flesh and blood and bones, to be locked up...I saw that, if there was a wall of stone between me and my townsmen, there was a still more difficult one to climb or break through, before they could get to be as free as I was. I did not for a moment feel confined, and the walls seemed a great waste of stone and mortar.

You utter a vow, or forge a signature, and you may find yourself bound for life to a monastery, a woman, or prison.

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.

Do not lay on the multitude the blame that is due to a few.

I know how men in exile feed on dreams of hope.

The law does not pretend to punish everything that is dishonest. That would seriously interfere with business.

To be at peace in crime! Ah, who can thus flatter himself.

Care should be taken that the punishment does not exceed the guilt; and also that some men do not suffer for offenses for which others are not even indicted.

Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circles of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.

Crimes generally punish themselves.

Vices are not crimes.

The severest justice may not always be the best policy.

Steal goods and you’ll go to prison, steal lands and you are a king.

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

Prison, dungeons, blessed places where evil is impossible because they are the crossroads of all the evil in the world. One cannot commit evil in hell.

One should respect public opinion insofar as is necessary to avoid starvation and keep out of prison, but anything that goes beyond this is voluntary submission to an unnecessary tyranny.

There is a point at which even justice does injury.

One crime is everything; two nothing.

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