Forgiveness, that noblest of all self-denial, is a virtue which he alone who can practise in himself can willingly believe in another.
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.
You stuff somebody into the American dream, and it becomes a prison.
We have our own system, ... and journalists in our system are not put in prison for embarrassing the government by revealing things the government might not wish to have revealed. The important thing is that our system, under which journalists can write without fear or favor, should continue.
Two men look out the same prison bars; one sees mud and the other stars.
Some laws of state aimed at curbing crime are even more criminal.
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.
Mere factual innocence is no reason not to carry out a death sentence properly reached.
Laws grind the poor, and rich men rule the law.
America is the land of the second chance – and when the gates of the prison open, the path ahead should lead to a better life.
When I was in prison, I was wrapped up in all those deep books. That Tolstoy crap - people shouldn't read that stuff.
One of the problems that the marijuana reform movement consistently faces is that everyone wants to talk about what marijuana does, but no one ever wants to look at what marijuana prohibition does. Marijuana never kicks down your door in the middle of the night. Marijuana never locks up sick and dying people, does not suppress medical research, does not peek in bedroom windows.
A variety in punishment is of utility, as well as a proportion.
Reality becomes a prison to those who can’t get out of it.
Hanging was the worst use a man could be put to.
I can work for the Lord in or out of prison.
The perfection of a thing consists in its essence; there are perfect criminals, as there are men of perfect probity.
The number of laws is constantly growing in all countries and, owing to this, what is called crime is very often not a crime at all, for it contains no element of violence or harm.
They took away my money, my family, and my security. Why couldn't they destroy my ideas? We will question them in court tomorrow as we trigger The Revolution of all revolutions!
The thoughts of a prisoner - they're not free either. They keep returning to the same things.
Liberty is rendered even more precious by the recollection of servitude.
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.
Pardon is the virtue of victory.
Man is condemned to be free.
He who opens a school door, closes a prison.
