Prison Quotes - Page 23

• How feeble is all language to describe the horrors we inflict upon these wretches, whom we mason up in the cells of our prisons, and condemn to perpetual solitude in the very heart of our population.

  Herman Melville

  Heart, Cells, Punishment

  Herman Melville (1968). “Typee: A Peep at Polynesian Life”, p.125, Northwestern University Press

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• I find very reasonable the Celtic belief that the souls of our dearly departed are trapped in some inferior being, in an animal, aplant, an inanimate object, indeed lost to us until the day, which for some never arrives, when we find that we pass near the tree, or come to possess the object which is their prison. Then they quiver, call us, and as soon as we have recognized them, the spell is broken. Freed by us, they have vanquished death and return to live with us.

  Marcel Proust

  Death, Animal, Broken

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• What do people have against convicts? Is living together in the pen of freedom, where young people engage in mutual psychology, any more beautiful?

  Karl Kraus

  Beautiful, Freedom, People

  Karl Kraus (1976). “Half-truths & one-and-a-half truths: selected aphorisms”

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• Taught from their infancy that beauty is woman's sceptre, the mind shapes itself to the body, and, roaming round its gilt cage, only seeks to adorn its prison. Men have various employments and pursuits which engage their attention, and give a character to the opening mind; but women, confined to one, and having their thoughts constantly directed to the most insignificant part of themselves, seldom extend their views beyond the triumph of the hour.

  Mary Wollstonecraft

  Women, Character, Views

  A Vindication of the Rights of Woman ch. 3 (1792)

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• Fear, coercion, punishment, are the masculine remedies for moral weakness, but statistics show their failure for centuries. Why not change the system and try the education of the moral and intellectual faculties, cheerful surroundings, inspiring influences? Everything in our present system tends to lower the physical vitality, the self-respect, the moral tone, and to harden instead of reforming the criminal.

  Elizabeth Cady Stanton

  Punishment, Self, Intellectual

  Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1898). “Eighty Years and More: Reminiscences, 1815-1897”, p.304, UPNE

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• Whatever success I have achieved, whatever positions of leadership I have held have depended less on Ivy League degrees or SAT scores or GPAs and have instead been due to that sense of connection and empathy, the special obligation I felt as a black man like you to help those who need it most, people who didn't have the opportunities that I had because there, but for the grace of God go I. I might have been in their shoes. I might have been in prison. I might have been unemployed. I might not have been able to support a family. And that motivates me.

  Barack Obama

  Opportunity, Men, Gpa

  "Around The World" with Michael Holmes and Suzanne Malveaux, www.cnn.com. May 20, 2013.

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• ...the way to reform has always led through prison.

  Emmeline Pankhurst

  Reform, Way

  Emmeline Pankhurst (1914). “My Own Story”

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• I pulled the boy close to me and said you see that girl, thats my only lil girl. So if you think about huggin or kissin. Remember these words. I aint afraid to go back to prison.

  Bill Engvall

  Funny, Girl, Humor

  FaceBook post by Bill Engvall from Jan 23, 2013

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• Listening to the radio every day for an entire year was a prison sentence. It was the most depressing, annoying, debilitating project I have ever undertaken, and I have a master's degree in art history.

  Sarah Vowell

  Depressing, Art, Years

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• I don't think Edward Snowden deserves a death penalty or life in prison. I think that's inappropriate. I think that's why he fled, [because] that is what he faced.

  Rand Paul

  Leadership, Party, Technology

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• The most important domestic challenge facing the U.S. at the close of the twentieth century is the re-creation of fatherhood as avital social role for men. At stake is nothing less than the success of the American experiment. For unless we reverse the trend of fatherlessness, no other set of accomplishments--not economic growth or prison construction or welfare reform or better schools--will succeed in arresting the decline of child well-being and the spread of male violence. To tolerate the trend of fatherlessness is to accept the inevitability of continued social recession.

  David Blankenhorn

  Children, School, Men

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• I tell ya, I know the best way to get girls. I hang out at women's prisons, and wait for parolees.

  Rodney Dangerfield

  Girl, Waiting, Way

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• Look, we'll have to confront the pathologies of poverty at some point. We can deal with them cheaply at the front end, in infancy. Or we can wait and jail a troubled adolescent at the tail end. To some extent, we face a choice between investing in preschools or in prisons.

  Nicholas D. Kristof

  Education, Money, Reality

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• I relate to any prison movie, as long as it has some authenticity.

  Danny Trejo

  Long, Authenticity, Relate

  Source: collider.com

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• I started out in 1985, and I was Inmate #1 in every prison movie made from '85 to '93.

  Kim Coates

  Inmates, Made

  Source: collider.com

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• Ninety percent of what most yoga teachers do is teach asana practice. While asana discharges stress and so forth, it was never intended to be a standalone practice. The true intent of yoga is personal transformation. What we get out of the privilege of teaching prisoners is the opportunity to focus on our own personal development. You can be of service, and, while helping others transform their lives, you have the deeper opportunity to transform your own. What we teach in prison is how we live our lives.

  James Fox

  Teacher, Stress, Teaching

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• That's for the best. Otherwise they might realize they're in prison. It can't be helped. You women are used to harems and prisons. A person can spend his whole life between four walls. If he doesn't think or feel that he's a prisoner, then he's not a prisoner. But then there are people for whom the whole planet is a prison, who see the infinite expanse of the universe, the millions of stars and galaxies that remain forever inaccessible to them. And that awareness makes them the greatest prisoners of time and space.

  Vladimir Bartol

  Stars, Wall, Thinking

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• Why should a man deliberately encircle his mind with needless prison walls. No man can reach highest excellence who puts limits to his own thought.

  Arthur Desmond

  Wall, Men, Mind

  "Rival Caesars". Book by Arthur Desmond, 1903.

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• Martha Stewart is getting out of prison so today the terror alert was raised from orange to pesto.

  David Letterman

  Orange, Today, Terror

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• Have you seen the cover of Newsweek? They have Martha Stewart on the cover, but it's not actually Martha. It's a doctored photo. They put Martha's head on a slimmer woman's body. And Martha was very upset about this. She said, 'Hey, if I wanted my face on another woman's body, I'd stay in prison.'

  Jay Leno

  Upset, Hey, Body

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• This is serious, if Martha gets the maximum sentence on all counts, she could serve 20 years in prison. Of course, you have to take off time off for good behavior, which means 20 years in prison.

  Conan O'Brien

  Mean, Years, Serious

  "This Week's 'The List' -- Martha Guilty", abcnews.go.com.

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• American Taliban John Walker Lindh has pleaded guilty to two counts of terrorism and will face twenty years in prison. I guess that means his jihad is on ji-hold.

  Jay Leno

  Mean, Two, Years

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• We are not taught to fear our politicians, who can debase our currency, throw us in prison and send us to war - but rather we are taught to fear each other. We are taught to imagine that the real predators in this world are not those who control prison cells, national debts and nuclear weapons, but rather our fellow citizens, who in the absence of brutal control would surely tear us apart!

  Stefan Molyneux

  Real, War, Cells

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• Mexico's No. 1 drug lord has escaped from prison and may be headed to the U.S. So Donald Trump was wrong. They ARE sending us their best.

  Conan O'Brien

  Drug, Mexico, May

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• The prison scandal is really hurting President Bush's poll numbers. In fact, I hear he's already working on his concession smirk.

  Craig Kilborn

  Hurt, Numbers, President

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