Quotes About Imprisonment

I had to say it gave me a warm feeling to picture Meredith Winslow spending twenty years or so in an ill fitting orange jumpsuit, cozying up to a great big girl named Beulah

As Elizabeth put it, "I have neglected no duties, have injured no one, have always tried to do unto others as I would wish to be done by; and yet, here in America, I am imprisoned because I could not say I believed what I did not believe.

The best way to keep a prisoner from escaping is to make sure he never knows he's in prison.

You are in prison. If you wish to get out of prison, the first thing you must do is realize that you are in prison. If you think you are free, you can't escape.

What you took as yourself begins to look like a little prison-house far away in the valley beneath you.

The jailer is another kind of captive—is the jailer envious of his prisoner's dreams?

Radian. The prisoner's name is Radiana. Who is keeping her prisoner? Time, Stelio. Time is guarding the doors with his scythe and his hour-glass, as in all those old prints...

How long will I be in here?" I asked. "Varies," said the guard as he closed the door and locked me in. "Usually until Mrs. Cobrawick thinks you learned your lesson. I hate this job. Try not to lose your mind, girl." Those were the last words spoken to me for a very long time. The guard had given me good advice, which turned out to be nearly impossible to follow.

I couldn't help wondering if I am some sort of prisoner here?" "If you were a prisoner, why would I have you for dinner?" Her brittle smile faded at the wicked way he had worded the question. He was already looking at her like he meant to have her for dessert.

It's frustrating for me to be unable to speak. To feel that I have so much to say, so many ways I can help, but I'm locked in a soundproof box, a game show isolation booth from which I can see out and I can hear what's going on, but they never turn on my microphone and they never let me out. It might drive a person mad. It certainly has driven many a dog mad.

freedom is anathema to dreams nurtured in captivity.

La liberté, c'est le minotaure en dehors des murs.

When we ignore those in need and are complicit in others' imprisonment, we cut ourselves off from our shared humanity. You may not notice it at first—or ever—but you are cut off from the source of life. The divine is found in each and every person. Each and every person! We must all be connected to each other in order to be connected to the source of life.

week days pent up in lath and

Billy made no demur. But, indeed, any demur would have been as idle as the protest of a goldfinch popped into a cage.

Far from the hateful cause of all his woes. Neleus his treasures one long year detains, As long he groan'd in Philacus' chains: Meantime, what anguish and what rage combined For lovely Pero rack'd his labouring mind!

I am convinced that imprisonment is a way of pretending to solve the problem of crime. It does nothing for the victims of crime, but perpetuates the idea of retribution, thus maintaining the endless cycle of violence in our culture. It is a cruel and useless substitute for the elimination of those conditions—poverty, unemployment, homelessness, desperation, racism, greed—which are at the root of most punished crime. The crimes of the rich and powerful go mostly unpunished.

During the five years since the Party had been formed, it always seemed that time was measured not in days or months or hours but by the movements of comrades and brothers in and out of prison and by the dates of hearings, releases, and trials. Our lives were regulated not by the ordinary tempo of daily events but by the forced clockwork of the judicial process (330)

Many fine books have been written in prison.

The world was full of such madmen in those days. Imprisonment is not the way to deal with such people; half measures merely feed their pride. Leave 'em alone or hang 'em, in my opinion. Or better still, pack them off to the Americas, and let them starve.

Our prisons are full of people who think they're Napoleon..or God.

Very well. He sat cross-legged on the floor of the cage. You haven't run off so you want to talk. I will hear your explanation now. Really, Your Majesty? So good of you to condescend. I'll try to use small words and go slow. You're wasting my time. I know Jim betrayed me and you're covering for him. This is your chance to dazzle me wih your brillance or baffle me with your bullshit. You won't get another. When I get out, I won't be in the mood to listen.

Her imagination painted Georgie twenty years later, sitting in leg irons before some Broken psychiatrist. Well, you see, it all started with bubbles...

As politics is disconnected from its ethical and material moorings, it becomes easier to punish and imprison young people than to educate them.