Prison Quotes - Page 17

• It had long been true, and prisoners knew this better than anyone, that the poorer you were the more likely you were to end up in jail. This was not just because the poor committed more crimes. In fact, they did. The rich did not have to commit crimes to get what they wanted; the laws were on their side. But when the rich did commit crimes, they often were not prosecuted, and if they were they could get out on bail, hire clever lawyers, get better treatment from judges. Somehow, the jails ended up full of poor black people.

  Howard Zinn

  Clever, Law, Jail

  Howard Zinn (2015). “A People's History of the United States: 1492-Present”, p.516, Routledge

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• There is the past and its continuing horrors: violence, war, prejudices against those who are different, outrageous monopolization of the good earth's wealth by a few, political power in the hands of liars and murderers, the building of prisons instead of schools, the poisoning of the press and the entire culture by money. It is easy to become discouraged observing this, especially since this is what the press and television insist that we look at, and nothing more.

  Howard Zinn

  War, Liars, School

  Howard Zinn (2015). “A People's History of the United States: 1492-Present”, p.687, Routledge

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• Temporary feelings of regret are a normal part of the mourning process. This helps us retrieve our lost dreams. If we hold on to regret, we risk trapping ourselves in a prison of unrealized dreams from which it is difficult to escape.

  Barbara De Angelis

  Dream, Regret, Mourning

  Barbara De Angelis (2007). “How Did I Get Here?: Finding Your Way to Renewed Hope and Happiness When Life and Love Take Unexpected Turns”, p.215, Macmillan

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• Writers around the world protested when two Communist writers, Siniavski and Daniel, were sentenced to prison by their own comrades. But not even churches protest when Christians are put in prison for their faith.

  Richard Wurmbrand

  Christian, Two, Church

  "Tortured For Christ". Book by Richard Wurmbrand, June 1940.

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• In brief, we do more research on men in prison, men in the military, and men in general than we do on women for the same reason we do more research on rats than we do on humans.

  Warren Farrell

  Military, Men, Research

  Warren Farrell (1994). “The myth of male power: why men are the disposable sex”

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• In the case of a man and a woman [accused of commiting a crime together], both will often agree to the man taking the rap despite the man being more likely to receive a longer sentence and more likely to be raped in prison. If blacks were agreeing to do that for whites, the black community would be smart enough to call that 'learned subservience.'

  Warren Farrell

  Smart, Rap, Men

  "The Myth of Male Power". Book by Warren Farrell, 1993.

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• Tell me why the caged bird nutters against its prison bars, and I will tell you why the soul sickens of earthliness. The bird has wings, and wings were made to cleave the air, and soar in freedom in the sun. The soul is immortal it cannot feed upon husks.

  Randolph Sinks Foster

  Air, Wings, Bird

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• Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also in prison, the only house in a slave State in which a free man can abide with honor. They do not know how much truth is stronger than error, nor how much more eloquently and effectively he can combat injustice who has experienced a little in his own person. If the alternative is to keep all just men in prison, or give up war and slavery, the State will not hesitate which to choose.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Giving Up, War, Men

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• How come life in prison doesn't mean life? Until it does, we're not ready to do away with the death penalty. Stop thinking in terms of "punishment" for a minute and think in terms of safeguarding innocent people from incorrigible murderers.

  Jesse Ventura

  Mean, Thinking, Punishment

  "I Ain't Got Time To Bleed". Book by Jesse Ventura, 1999.

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• I think that physics is about escaping the prison of the received thoughts and searching for novel ways of thinking the world, about trying to clear a bit the misty lake of insubstantial dreams, which reflect reality like the lake reflects the mountains.

  Carlo Rovelli

  Dream, Reality, Thinking

  Carlo Rovelli (2007). “Quantum Gravity”, p.17, Cambridge University Press

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• Anarchism is opposed to states, armies, slavery, the wages system, the landlord system, prisons, monopoly capitalism, oligopoly capitalism, state capitalism, bureaucracy, meritocracy, theocracy, revolutionary governments, patriarchy, matriarchy, monarchy, oligarchy, protection rackets, intimidation by gangsters, and every other kind of coercive institution. In other words, anarchism opposes government in all its forms.

  Donald Rooum

  Army, Government, Wages

  "What Is Anarchism? An Introduction". Book by Donald Rooum, August 1, 1992.

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• I cherish my own freedom dearly, but I care even more for your freedom. Too many have died since I went to prison. Too many have suffered for the love of freedom. I owe it to their widows, to their orphans, to their mothers and their fathers, who have grieved and wept for them ..... Not only have I suffered during these long lonely wasted years. I am no less life-loving than you are. But I cannot sell the birthright of the people to be free ....... Only free men can negotiate. Prisoners cannot enter into contracts. Your freedom and mine cannot be separated.

  Nelson Mandela

  Mother, Lonely, Father

  Nelson Mandela (2003). “Nelson Mandela: from freedom to the future : tributes and speeches”, Jonathan Ball Publishers

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• Did it ever occur to anyone that if you put nice libraries in public schools you wouldn't have to put them in prisons?

  Fran Lebowitz

  Nice, School, Library

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• The regime of control tightens inexorably in our schools, many of which now have video cameras, police patrols, chain-link fences, random unannounced locker searches, metal detectors, drug-sniffing dogs, networks of informants, undercover police posing as students, and a comprehensive system of passes so that there is a record of each student's authorized whereabouts at all times. What a perfect preparation for life in a prison or a totalitarian society!

  Charles Eisenstein

  Dog, School, Perfect

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• Solitary confinement has been used extensively, it always has. I was in prison for 44 years; it was a normal part of life - the practice of it. They put you in solitary confinement for disciplinary reasons, they put you in solitary confinement to protect you from violence or whatever, and they also put you in solitary confinement just to show you who has got the power ... It's not something new; it's just something that nobody really cared about in the past.

  Wilbert Rideau

  Past, Years, Practice

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• The Devil's methods of opposition are those of alliance and antagonism, and the only serious one is the first. Let us beware of it. Do not let us imagine that we can take into our fellowship and enlist under one banner men who simply affirm truth about Jesus, unless in their own lives there is an absolute loyalty to the Lord Christ. Antagonism is the creation of force for the kingdom of God. Put a man in prison for Christ's sake, and the earthquake will surely follow, and the work will spread.

  G. Campbell Morgan

  Loyalty, Jesus, Men

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• Bertrand Russell used to employ the method of "evidence against interest"; in other words of deciding that a critique of capital punishment, say, carried more weight if it came from a prison governor. (My friend John O'Sullivan puts it like this: If the pope says he believes in God, he's only doing his job; if he says he doesn't believe in God, he may be on to something.)

  Christopher Hitchens

  Jobs, Believe, Punishment

  "What Sharon Did" by Christopher Hitchens, www.slate.com. January 5, 2006.

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• A prison is confining to the body, but whether it affects the mind, depends entirely upon the mind.

  Clarence Darrow

  Mind, Atheism, Body

  Clarence Darrow (1995). “Why I Am an Agnostic and Other Essays”

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• I am a poor mendicant. My earthly possessions consist of six spinning wheels, prison dishes, a can of goat's milk, six homespun loincloths and towels and my reputation, which cannot be worth much.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Atheism, Goats, Towels

  Mahatma Gandhi (2005). “All Men Are Brothers”, p.40, A&C Black

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• How many prison years in the years since Christ!

  Stanislaw Jerzy Lec

  Years, Atheism, Christ

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• The severest prosecutions have never been followed by revelations changing a divine law, obedience to which brought imprisonment or martyrdom. Though I go to prison, God will not change his law of celestial marriage.

  Lorenzo Snow

  Law, Obedience, Revelations

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• I never imagined that I'd be out of prison.

  Danny Trejo

  Source: collider.com

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• I would have been content with still playing Inmate #1. I worked on every prison movie made, from 1985 to 1991. I would go from movie to movie to movie.

  Danny Trejo

  Inmates, Made, Stills

  Source: collider.com

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• Let's stop wasting billions of dollars on prisons, which send people home who are too often less capable and more damaged than when they went in. We would have safer neighborhoods if we spent the same money on true rehabilitation, job training, employment and entrepreneurship.

  Van Jones

  Jobs, Home, People

  Interview with S.E. Cupp, www.nydailynews.com. August 23, 2013.

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• One of my younger homies, he went to jail, and some people came to me and were like, "Bail him out," and I said no. Why would I bail him out? He's going to prison. Let him sit and get some time served. You want to be crazy, but you don't want to go to jail. You want to shoot people, but you don't want to kill people. That's such a misleading thing.

  Vince Staples

  Crazy, Jail, People

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

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