Quotes

Nelson Mandela and Malcolm X came out of prison stronger.

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.

It was only when I lay there on the rotting prison straw that I sensed within myself the first stirrings of good. Gradually it was disclosed to me that the line separating good and evil passes not between states nor between social classes nor between political parties, but right through every human heart, through all human hearts. And that is why I turn back to the years of my imprisonment and say, sometimes to the astonishment of those about me, bless you, prison, for having been a part of my life.

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.

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.

Vices are not crimes.

The perfection of a thing consists in its essence; there are perfect criminals, as there are men of perfect probity.

We don't seem to be able to check crime, so why not legalize it and then tax it out of business.

Society has used the juvenile courts to create a caste system where there are throw-away people.

There's no greater threat to our independence, to our cherished freedoms and personal liberties than the continual, relentless injection of these insidious poisons into our system. We must decide whether we cherish independence from drugs, without which there is no freedom.

I know how men in exile feed on dreams of hope.

The English laws punish vice; the Chinese laws do more, they reward virtue.

Nothing can be more abhorrent to democracy than to imprison a person or keep him in prison because he is unpopular. This is really the test of civilization.

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

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.

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.

If you share the crime of your friend, you make it your own.

Three hundred years ago a prisoner condemned to the Tower of London carved on the wall of his cell this sentiment to keep up his spirits during his long imprisonment: “It is not adversity that kills, but the impatience with which we bear adversity.”

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.

He who does not prevent a crime when he can, encourages it.

One crime has to be concealed by another.

While we have prisons it matters little which of us occupy the cells.

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

What restrains us from killing is partly fear of punishment, partly moral scruple, and partly what may be described as a sense of humor.

If we look at Houston, which is a very environmentally toxic place, we find that it has one of the highest levels of young men going to prison and also among the highest levels of illiteracy in the country.