It is the spirit and not the form of law that keeps justice alive.
So justice while she winks at crimes, Stumbles on innocence sometimes.
To be in prison so long, it's difficult to remember exactly what you did to get there.
The object of punishment is prevention from evil; it never can be made impulsive to good.
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.
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.
Wherever any one is against his will, that is to him a prison.
A country is in a bad state, which is governed only by laws; because a thousand things occur for which laws cannot provide, and where authority ought to interpose.
I existed in a world that never is - the prison of the mind.
Any punishment that does not correct, that can merely rouse rebellion in whoever has to endure it, is a piece of gratuitous infamy which makes those who impose it more guilty in the eyes of humanity, good sense and reason, nay a hundred times more guilty than the victim on whom the punishment is inflicted.
A pedestal is as much a prison as any small, confined space.
Those magistrates who can prevent crime, and do not, in effect encourage it.
A man who has no excuse for a crime, is indeed defenseless!
A sick person is a prisoner.
Fast closed with double grills And triple gates–the cell To wicked souls is hell; But to a mind that's innocent 'Tis only iron, wood and stone.
Laws do not persuade just because they threaten.
Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains.
There is no greater punishment of wickedness that that it is dissatisfied with itself and its deeds.
I know not whether laws be right, or whether laws be wrong; All that we know who lie in gaol is that the wall is strong; And that each day is like a year, a year whose days are long.
What is crime amongst the multitude, is only vice among the few.
When it comes to freedom, we are but prisoners of our own desires.
Every instance of a man's suffering the penalty of the law is an instance of the failure of that penalty in effecting its purpose, which is to deter.
The reformative effect of punishment is a belief that dies hard, chiefly I think, because it is so satisfying to our sadistic impulses.
I never told a victim story about my imprisonment. Instead, I told a transformation story - about how prison changed my outlook, about how I saw that communication, truth, and trust are at the heart of power.
Crime is a logical extension of the sort of behavior that often [is] considered perfectly respectable in legitimate business.
