Quotes

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

No crime has been without a precedent.

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

It is safer that a bad man should not be accused, than that he should be acquitted.

Vices are not crimes.

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.

Let us remember that justice must be observed even to the lowest.

Whatever you think of de Sade, he was a complex figure and we should not look for easy answers with him. He was, strangely perhaps, against the death penalty, and he was never put in prison for murders or anything like that.

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

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

Virtue pardons the wicked, as the sandal-tree perfumes the axe which strikes it.

The best situation of all, and one frequently utilized, is for jails and prisons to allow volunteer ministers of all faiths to enter prisons and offer their services to the inmates who want them. That way, the religious needs of inmates are met but without government funds being spent.

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

I submit that an individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for the law.

Civilization is maintained by a very few people in a small number of places and we need only some bombs and a few prisons to blot it out altogether.

Money will determine whether the accused goes to prison or walks out of the courtroom a free man.

It is not at the table, but in prison, that you learn who your true friends are.

Wicked deeds are generally done, even with impunity, for the mere desire of occupation.

The thoughts of a prisoner - they're not free either. They keep returning to the same things.

Definition, rationality, and structure are ways of seeing, but they become prisons when they blank out other ways of seeing.

Laws grind the poor, and rich men rule the law.

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

Three hundred years ago a prisoner condemned to the Tower of London carved on the wall of his cell this sentiment to keep up his spirits during his long imprisonment: “It is not adversity that kills, but the impatience with which we bear adversity.”

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

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.