Quotes

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.

To my mind, to kill in war is not a whit better than to commit ordinary murder.

I have never been contained except I made the prison.

I have been studying how I may compare this prison where I live unto the world; Shut up in the prison of their own consciences.

Concepts of justice must have hands and feet to carry out justice in every case in the shortest possible time and the lowest possible cost. That is the challenge to every lawyer and judge in America.

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

The guilt of enforced crimes lies on those who impose them.

The contagion of crime is like that of the plague. Criminals collected together corrupt each other; they are worse than ever when at the termination of their punishment they re-enter society.

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.

The worst of prison life, he thought, was not being able to close his door.

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.

Organized crime in America takes in over forty billion dollars a year. This is quite a profitable sum, especially when one considers that the Mafia spends very little for office supplies.

Prison makes you a better judge of character. You pick up on people much faster.

It is hard, but it is excellent, to find the right knowledge of when correction is necessary and when grace doth most avail.

How dreadful it is when the right judge judges wrong.

There are few better measures of the concern a society has for its individual members and its own well being than the way it handles criminals.

The virtue of justice consists in moderation, as regulated by wisdom.

The mellow sweetness of pumpkin pie off a prison spoon is something you will never forget.

When the Nazis came for the communists, I remained silent; I was not a communist. When they locked up the social democrats, I remained silent; I was not a social democrat. When they came for the trade unionists, I did not speak out; I was not a trade unionist. When they came for me, there was no one left to speak out.

In the halls of justice, the only justice is in the halls.

The reformative effect of punishment is a belief that dies hard, chiefly I think, because it is so satisfying to our sadistic impulses.

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

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.

No written law has been more binding than unwritten custom supported by popular opinion.

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