Quotes

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

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

There are dreadful punishments enacted against thieves; but it were much better to make such good provisions, by which every man might be put in a method how to live, and so to be preserved from the fatal necessity of stealing and dying for it.

The law does not pretend to punish everything that is dishonest. That would seriously interfere with business.

I was in prison, and you came unto me. Verily I say unto you, inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.
~(Jesus Christ) Matthew 25:36, 40

Do not lay on the multitude the blame that is due to a few.

If you want total security, go to prison. There you’re fed, clothed, given medical care and so on. The only thing lacking…is freedom.

I existed in a world that never is - the prison of the mind.

The only real prison is fear, and the only real freedom is freedom from fear.

Liberty is rendered even more precious by the recollection of servitude.

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

No crime has been without a precedent.

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.

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

Crime is a logical extension of the sort of behavior that often [is] considered perfectly respectable in legitimate business.

Crimes lead one into another; they who are capable of being forgers are capable of being incendiaries.

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

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.

To be in prison so long, it's difficult to remember exactly what you did to get there.

In my country we go to prison first and then become President.

It is certain that the study of human psychology, if it were undertaken exclusively in prisons, would also lead to misrepresentation and absurd generalizations.

Here the great art lies, to discern in what the law is to be to restraint and punishment, and in what things persuasion only is to work.

One crime has to be concealed by another.

No man should be judge in his own case.

The object of punishment is prevention from evil; it never can be made impulsive to good.