# Quotes about prison - Quotes: 30 - Authors: 20 - Broader topic: [Quotes about law](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/law.md) - Topic page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/prison - JSON version (same data): https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/prison.json ## Quotes > A lot of my childhood playmates ended up behind bars and I don’t mean as bartenders. [Fredric Brown](https://www.leafyquotes.com/fredric-brown.md) · [The Lights in the Sky are Stars](https://www.leafyquotes.com/fredric-brown/the-lights-in-the-sky-are-stars.md) · p. 214 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/fredric-brown/the-lights-in-the-sky-are-stars/a-lot-of-my-childhood.md) Topics: [humor](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor.md), [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md), [prison](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/prison.md) > I'm the smartest man in the world. Once I wore a cape in public, and fought battles against men who could fly, who had metal skin, who could kill you with their eyes. I fought CoreFire to a standstill, and the Super Squadron, and the Champions. Now I have to shuffle through a cafeteria line with men who tried to pass bad checks. Now I have to wonder if there will be chocolate milk in the dispenser. And whether the smartest man in the world has done the smartest thing he could with his life. [Austin Grossman](https://www.leafyquotes.com/austin-grossman.md) · [Soon I Will be Invincible](https://www.leafyquotes.com/austin-grossman/soon-i-will-be-invincible.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/austin-grossman/soon-i-will-be-invincible/im-the-smartest.md) Topics: [meaning of life](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life.md), [intelligence](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/intelligence.md), [prison](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/prison.md) > More than iron doors, more than walls, it is the tiny peephole that really makes the prisoner feel locked in. [Kōbō Abe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/kobo-abe.md) · [The Woman in the Dunes](https://www.leafyquotes.com/kobo-abe/the-woman-in-the-dunes.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/kobo-abe/the-woman-in-the-dunes/more-than-iron.md) Topics: [freedom](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/freedom.md), [prison](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/prison.md) > Nothing. Jail is about nothing. Completely blank. [Ai Weiwei](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ai-weiwei.md) · [Ai Weiwei](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ai-weiwei/ai-weiwei.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ai-weiwei/ai-weiwei/nothing-jail-is-about.md) Topics: [prison](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/prison.md) > Nothing is eternal—including prisons. [Gregory Benford](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-benford.md) · [Beyond Infinity](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-benford/beyond-infinity.md) · p. 110 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-benford/beyond-infinity/nothing-is-eternal-including.md) Topics: [transience](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/transience.md), [prison](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/prison.md) > A convict's paranoia is as thick as the prison wall - and just as necessary. [Eldridge Cleaver](https://www.leafyquotes.com/eldridge-cleaver.md) · [Soul on Ice](https://www.leafyquotes.com/eldridge-cleaver/soul-on-ice.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/eldridge-cleaver/soul-on-ice/a-convicts-paranoia.md) Topics: [prison](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/prison.md) > The more difficult a man's life had been before the camp, the more furiously he lied. This lie had no practical purpose; it served simply to glorify freedom. How could a man be unhappy outside the camp? [Vasily Grossman](https://www.leafyquotes.com/vasily-grossman.md) · [Life and Fate](https://www.leafyquotes.com/vasily-grossman/life-and-fate.md) · p. 5 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/vasily-grossman/life-and-fate/the-more-difficult.md) Topics: [freedom](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/freedom.md), [lies](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/lies.md), [prison](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/prison.md) > The only victory that really counts in prison is survival. [Gregory David Roberts](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-david-roberts.md) · [Shantaram](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-david-roberts/shantaram.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-david-roberts/shantaram/the-only-victory.md) Topics: [survival](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/survival.md), [prison](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/prison.md) > Prisons are the temples where devils learn to pray. Every time we turn the key we twist the knife of fate, because every time we cage a man we close him in with hate. [Gregory David Roberts](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-david-roberts.md) · [Shantaram](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-david-roberts/shantaram.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-david-roberts/shantaram/prisons-are-the.md) Topics: [hatred](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/hatred.md), [prison](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/prison.md) > In prison, a man rations his smiles because predatory men see smiling as a weakness, weak men see it as an invitation, and prison guards see it as a provocation to some new torment. [Gregory David Roberts](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-david-roberts.md) · [Shantaram](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-david-roberts/shantaram.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-david-roberts/shantaram/in-prison-a-man.md) Topics: [prison](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/prison.md), [smiling](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/smiling.md) > Prison systems are like black holes for human bodies: no light escapes from them, and no news. [Gregory David Roberts](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-david-roberts.md) · [Shantaram](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-david-roberts/shantaram.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-david-roberts/shantaram/prison-systems-are.md) Topics: [prison](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/prison.md) > Yakov counted. He counted time though he tried not to. Counting presupposed an end to counting, at least for a man who used only small numbers. How many times had he counted up to a hundred in his life? Who could count forever? – it piled time on. The fixer had torn some splinters off sticks of firewood. The long splinters were months, the short, days. A day was a bad enough burden of time but within the day even minutes could do damage as they piled up. When one had nothing to do the worst thing to have was an endless supply of minutes. It was like pouring nothing into a million little bottles. [Bernard Malamud](https://www.leafyquotes.com/bernard-malamud.md) · [The Fixer](https://www.leafyquotes.com/bernard-malamud/the-fixer.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/bernard-malamud/the-fixer/yakov-counted-he-counted.md) Topics: [time](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/time.md), [prison](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/prison.md) > You wait. You wait a minute of hope and days of hopelessness. Sometimes you just wait, there’s no greater insult. You sink into your thoughts and try to blot out the prison cell. If you’re lucky it dissolves and you spend a half hour out in the open, beyond the doors and walls and the hatred of yourself. If you’re not lucky your thoughts can poison you. [Bernard Malamud](https://www.leafyquotes.com/bernard-malamud.md) · [The Fixer](https://www.leafyquotes.com/bernard-malamud/the-fixer.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/bernard-malamud/the-fixer/you-wait-you.md) Topics: [hope](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/hope.md), [prison](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/prison.md) > A prison taint was on everything there. The imprisoned air, the imprisoned light, the imprisoned damps, the imprisoned men, were all deteriorated by confinement. As the captive men were faded and haggard, so the iron was rusty, the stone was slimy, the wood was rotten, the air was faint, the light was dim. Like a well, like a vault, like a tomb, the prison had no knowledge of the brightness outside; and would have kept its polluted atmosphere intact, in one of the spice islands of the Indian Ocean. [Charles Dickens](https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens.md) · [Little Dorrit](https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens/little-dorrit.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens/little-dorrit/a-prison-taint.md) Topics: [prison](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/prison.md) > The prison is overcrowded, the calendars full, the judges busy, the lawyers ambitious, and the cops zealous. What does it matter if someone gets trapped here for a year or two, gets ruined here, goes mad here, commits murder or suicide here? It's too bad, but that's the way the cookie crumbles sometimes. I do not claim that everyone in prison here is innocent, but I do claim that the law, as it operates, is guilty, and that the prisoners, therefore, are all unjustly imprisoned. Is it conceivable, after all, that any middle-class white boy — or, indeed, almost any white boy — would have been arrested on so grave a charge as murder, with such flimsy substantiation, and forced to spend, as of this writing, three years in prison? What force, precisely, is operating when a prisoner is advised, requested, ordered, intimidated, or forced, to confess to a crime he has not committed, and promised a lighter sentence for so perjuring and debasing himself? Does the law exist for the purpose of furthering the ambitions of those who have sworn to uphold the law, or is it seriously to be considered as a moral, unifying force, the health and strength of a nation? [James Baldwin](https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-baldwin.md) · [No Name in the Street](https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-baldwin/no-name-in-the-street.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-baldwin/no-name-in-the-street/the-prison-is-overcrowded.md) Topics: [justice](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/justice.md), [prison](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/prison.md) > But prison was terrible. It reduced him to absolute Jack, no matter what anyone thought of him. His great problem, after all, was other people. Prison was full of them. [Marilynne Robinson](https://www.leafyquotes.com/marilynne-robinson.md) · [Jack](https://www.leafyquotes.com/marilynne-robinson/jack.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/marilynne-robinson/jack/but-prison-was.md) Topics: [prison](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/prison.md) > Anyone who has been to an English public school will always feel comparatively at home in prison. It is the people brought up in the gay intimacy of the slums who find prison so soul-destroying. [Evelyn Waugh](https://www.leafyquotes.com/evelyn-waugh.md) · [Decline and Fall](https://www.leafyquotes.com/evelyn-waugh/decline-and-fall.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/evelyn-waugh/decline-and-fall/anyone-who-has.md) Topics: [humor](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor.md), [prison](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/prison.md) > The authorities liked to say that we received a balanced diet; it was indeed balanced — between the unpalatable and the inedible. [Nelson Mandela](https://www.leafyquotes.com/nelson-mandela.md) · [Long Walk to Freedom](https://www.leafyquotes.com/nelson-mandela/long-walk-to-freedom.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/nelson-mandela/long-walk-to-freedom/the-authorities-liked.md) Topics: [humor](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor.md), [food](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/food.md), [prison](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/prison.md) > Prison itself is a tremendous education in the need for patience and perseverance. It is above all a test of one's commitment. [Nelson Mandela](https://www.leafyquotes.com/nelson-mandela.md) · [Long Walk to Freedom](https://www.leafyquotes.com/nelson-mandela/long-walk-to-freedom.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/nelson-mandela/long-walk-to-freedom/prison-itself-is-a-tremendous.md) Topics: [patience](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/patience.md), [prison](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/prison.md) > No one truly knows a nation until one has been inside its jails. A nation should not be judged by how it treats its highest citizens but its lowest ones. [Nelson Mandela](https://www.leafyquotes.com/nelson-mandela.md) · [Long Walk to Freedom](https://www.leafyquotes.com/nelson-mandela/long-walk-to-freedom.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/nelson-mandela/long-walk-to-freedom/no-one-truly.md) Topics: [society](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/society.md), [prison](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/prison.md) > In my country we go to prison first and then become President. [Nelson Mandela](https://www.leafyquotes.com/nelson-mandela.md) · [Long Walk to Freedom](https://www.leafyquotes.com/nelson-mandela/long-walk-to-freedom.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/nelson-mandela/long-walk-to-freedom/in-my-country.md) Topics: [humor](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor.md), [prison](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/prison.md) > There is one kind of prison where the man is behind bars, and everything that he desires is outside; and there is another kind where the things are behind the bars, and the man is outside. [Upton Sinclair](https://www.leafyquotes.com/upton-sinclair.md) · [The Jungle](https://www.leafyquotes.com/upton-sinclair/the-jungle.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/upton-sinclair/the-jungle/there-is-one.md) Topics: [poverty](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/poverty.md), [desire](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/desire.md), [prison](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/prison.md) > But a punishment like forced labour or even imprisonment – mere loss of liberty – has never functioned without a certain additional element of punishment that certainly concerns the body itself: rationing of food, sexual deprivation, corporal punishment, solitary confinement ... There remains, therefore, a trace of ‘torture’ in the modern mechanisms of criminal justice – a trace that has not been entirely overcome, but which is enveloped, increasingly, by the non-corporal nature of the penal system [Michel Foucault](https://www.leafyquotes.com/michel-foucault.md) · [Discipline and Punish](https://www.leafyquotes.com/michel-foucault/discipline-and-punish.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/michel-foucault/discipline-and-punish/but-a-punishment.md) Topics: [punishment](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/punishment.md), [prison](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/prison.md), [torture](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/torture.md) > We are aware of all the inconveniences of prison, and that it is dangerous when it is not useless. And yet one cannot 'see' how to replace it. It is the detestable solution, which one seems unable to do without. [Michel Foucault](https://www.leafyquotes.com/michel-foucault.md) · [Discipline and Punish](https://www.leafyquotes.com/michel-foucault/discipline-and-punish.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/michel-foucault/discipline-and-punish/we-are-aware.md) Topics: [punishment](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/punishment.md), [prison](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/prison.md) > Is it surprising that prisons resemble factories, schools, barracks, hospitals, which all resemble prisons? [Michel Foucault](https://www.leafyquotes.com/michel-foucault.md) · [Discipline and Punish](https://www.leafyquotes.com/michel-foucault/discipline-and-punish.md) · p. 228 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/michel-foucault/discipline-and-punish/is-it-surprising.md) Topics: [power](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/power.md), [prison](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/prison.md) > Logically, the "infantilization" of the culprit implied by the notion of punishment demands that he should have a corresponding right to a reward, in the absence of which the initial procedure will prove ineffective and may even lead to results contrary to those that were hoped for. Our system is the height of absurdity, since we treat the culprit both as a child, so as to have the right to punish him, and as an adult, in order to deny him consolation; and we believe we have made great spiritual progress because, instead of eating a few of our fellow-men, we subject them to physical and moral mutilation. [Claude Lévi-Strauss](https://www.leafyquotes.com/claude-levi-strauss.md) · [Tristes Tropiques](https://www.leafyquotes.com/claude-levi-strauss/tristes-tropiques.md) · p. 388 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/claude-levi-strauss/tristes-tropiques/logically-the-infantilization.md) Topics: [punishment](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/punishment.md), [prison](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/prison.md) > Even there, in the mines, underground, I may find a human heart in another convict and murderer by my side, and I may make friends with him, for even there one may live and love and suffer. One may thaw and revive a frozen heart in that convict, one may wait upon him for years, and at last bring up from the dark depths a lofty soul, a feeling, suffering creature; one may bring forth an angel, create a hero! There are so many of them, hundreds of them, and we are to blame for them. [Fyodor Dostoyevsky](https://www.leafyquotes.com/fyodor-dostoyevsky.md) · [The Brothers Karamazov](https://www.leafyquotes.com/fyodor-dostoyevsky/the-brothers-karamazov.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/fyodor-dostoyevsky/the-brothers-karamazov/even-there-in-the.md) Topics: [hope](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/hope.md), [prison](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/prison.md) > There are always places to go further down. Life goes on. And second, if you just hang in there, someday they’re going to have to let you out. [Neil Gaiman](https://www.leafyquotes.com/neil-gaiman.md) · [American Gods](https://www.leafyquotes.com/neil-gaiman/american-gods.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/neil-gaiman/american-gods/there-are-always.md) Topics: [hope](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/hope.md), [prison](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/prison.md) > The best thing - in Shadow's opinion, perhaps the only good thing - about being in prison was a feeling of relief. The feeling that he'd plunged as low as he could plunge and he'd hit bottom. He didn't worry that the man was going to get him, because the man had got him. He did not awake in prison with a feeling of dread; he was no longer scared of what tomorrow might bring, because yesterday had brought it. [Neil Gaiman](https://www.leafyquotes.com/neil-gaiman.md) · [American Gods](https://www.leafyquotes.com/neil-gaiman/american-gods.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/neil-gaiman/american-gods/the-best-thing.md) Topics: [fear](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/fear.md), [prison](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/prison.md) > The formula for prison is a lack of space counterbalanced by a surplus of time. This is what really bothers you, that you can't win. Prison is lack of alternatives, and the telescopic predictability of the future is what drives you crazy. [Joseph Brodsky](https://www.leafyquotes.com/joseph-brodsky.md) · [Less Than One](https://www.leafyquotes.com/joseph-brodsky/less-than-one.md) · p. 28 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/joseph-brodsky/less-than-one/the-formula-for.md) Topics: [time](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/time.md), [prison](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/prison.md)