Penitentiary Quotes

All that we require of a voter is that he shall be forked, wear pantaloons instead of petticoats, and bear a more or less humorous resemblance to the reported image of God. He need not know anything whatever; he may be wholly useless and a cumberer of the earth; he may even be known to be a consummate scoundrel. No matter. While he can steer clear of the penitentiary his vote is as weighty as the vote of a president, a bishop, a college professor, a merchant prince. We brag of our universal, unrestricted suffrage; but we are shams after all, for we restrict when we come to the women.

Every prison that men build Is built with bricks of shame, And bound with bars lest Christ should see How men their brothers maim.

Listen to me, convict. I have not traveled all this way to listen to your war stories. So shut your trap before I shut it for you. Commander Julius Root

Eddie Conway is central to my first memories. My parents used to take me to, when it was open, the Baltimore city penitentiary to see Eddie Conway - I was talking to my dad about this recently - from the time I might have been one or two years old. I mean, literally, my first memories are of black men in jail, specifically of Eddie Conway.

Yeah, I've gotten a few letters from prison.

Prison is a Socialist paradise where equality prevails, everything is supplied, and competition is eliminated.

If it wasn't for baseball, I'd be in either the penitentiary or the cemetery.

It's [Jail's] like being at school. Except you can't leave.

I mean, what is prison, really, except a good bar without the liquor?

If forced to choose between the penitentiary and the White House for four years, I would say the penitentiary, thank you.

Prison is a severe and terrible punishment; but for me, thanks to Arthur Balfour, this was not so. I was much cheered on my arrival by the warder at the gate, who had to take particulars about me. He asked my religion, and I replied 'agnostic.' He asked how to spell it, and remarked with a sigh: 'Well, there are many religions, but I suppose they all worship the same God.' This remark kept me cheerful for about a week.

The only thing worse than working acting in an airplane is working in a prison - they're cold, and the clanging and the noise, it just gets under your skin after a week.

My father was jailed off and on for seven years.

The three things a Tammany leader most dreaded were in the ascending order of repulsiveness, the penitentiary, honest industry, and biography

PRISON, n. A place of punishments and rewards. The poet assures us that - stone walls do not a prison make.

Prison gives you time to reflect.

When you educate a negro, you educate a candidate for the penitentiary or spoil a good field hand.

Are there other people who, when watching a documentary set in a prison, secretly think, as I have, 'Wish I had all that time to read'?

The last place I would ever want to go is prison.

Prison is where you promise yourself the right to live.

I got a fan letter on the back of a prison menu. And I remember thinking, 'Well, they get pie. It's not so bad. They get pie on the weekends.' I want to say blueberry and also a Boston cream pie. Not so bad.

I saw worse stuff inside prison than I ever saw in the streets.

Oh, the inmates and the prisoners I found they were my kind And it was there inside the bars I found my peace of mind But the jails they were too crowded Institutions overflowed So they turned me loose to walk upon Life's hurried tangled road

I sent people to the penitentiary as fast as I could, never thinking about whether they deserved it.

I wish I could undo what I did at Enron but I can't. I understand that I deserve punishment. Your honor, I accept the prison sentence that you are about to impose and will serve it without bitterness.