Quotes

There is a point at which even justice does injury.

I wrote a million words in the first year, and I could never have done that outside of prison.

No matter how you seem to fatten on a crime, that can never be good for the bee which is bad for the hive.

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.

To make punishments efficacious, two things are necessary. They must never be disproportioned to the offence, and they must be certain.

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

I have been studying how I may compare This prison where I live unto the world; And, for because the world is populous, And here is not a creature but myself, I cannot do it. Yet I'll hammer it out.

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

I sometimes wish that people would put a little more emphasis upon the observance of the law than they do upon its enforcement.

Here the great art lies, to discern in what the law is to be to restraint and punishment, and in what things persuasion only is to work.

Hard cases, it is said, make bad law.

On a planet that increasingly resembles one huge Maximum Security prison, the only intelligent choice is to plan a jail break.

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

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

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

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.

Crimes generally punish themselves.

Every crime has, in the moment of its perpetration, Its own avenging angel--dark misgiving, An ominous sinking at the inmost heart.

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

Society prepares the crime; the criminal commits it.

Justice renders to every one his due.

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 guilt of enforced crimes lies on those who impose them.

Trial by jury itself, instead of being a security to persons who are accused, shall be a delusion, a mockery, and a snare.

Vices are not crimes.