Quotes

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.

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

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

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

In prison, you get the chance to see who really loves you.

I never saw a man who looked With such a wistful eye Upon that little tent of blue Which prisoners call the sky.

I just remember that disturbing feeling of walking into that prison, the complete loss of privacy, the complete loss of stimulation, dignity.

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

The solution to our drug problem is not in incarceration.

Forgiveness, that noblest of all self-denial, is a virtue which he alone who can practise in himself can willingly believe in another.

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

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

One crime is everything; two nothing.

Women now have choices. They can be married, not married, have a job, not have a job, be married with children, unmarried with children. Men have the same choice we've always had: work, or prison.

Whatever is worthy to be loved for anything is worthy of preservation. A wise and dispassionate legislator, if any such should ever arise among men, will not condemn to death him who has done or is likely to do more service than injury to society. Blocks and gibbets are the nearest objects with legislators, and their business is never with hopes or with virtues.

I don't like jail, they got the wrong kind of bars in there.

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

Justice renders to every one his due.

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

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.

The only difference between me and my fellow actors is that I've spent more time in jail.

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

Women have worked hard; starved in prison; given of their time and lives that we might sit in the House of Commons and take part in the legislating of this country.

Nor cell, nor chain, nor dungeon speaks to the murderer like the voice of solitude.

Crime succeeds by sudden despatch; honest counsels gain vigor by delay.