It must surely be a tribute to the resilience of the human spirit that even a small number of those men and women in the hell of the prison system survive it and hold on to their humanity. —Howard Zinn More about this quote Tags: humanity prison Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
My greatest hero is Nelson Mandela. What a man. Incarcerated for twenty-five years, he was released in 1990, and he hasn’t reoffended. I think he’s going straight, which shows you prison does work. —Ricky Gervais More about this quote Tags: prison Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
All people make mistakes. All of us are sinners. All of us are criminals. All of us violate the law at some point in our lives. In fact, if the worst thing you have ever done is speed ten miles over the speed limit on the freeway, you have put yourself and others at more risk of harm than someone smoking marijuana in the privacy of his or her living room. Yet there are people in the United States serving life sentences for first-time drug offenses, something virtually unheard of anywhere else in the world. —Michelle Alexander More about this quote Tags: justice politics crime USA Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
If some folks have buried their racial prejudices, the chances are that they’ve got the graves marked and will have no trouble disinterring their pet hates. —Josephine Lawrence More about this quote Tags: hatred racism race Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
Given the ethnic and racial hierarchies of American life, there are those who dish it out and those who have to take it. Some get to dish it out without ever having to take it, some take it from those above and dish it out to those below, and some find themselves in the position of always having to take it. Such a position is, psychologically and emotionally speaking, almost unbearable. Rage and despair accumulate with no place to go. —Elizabeth Stone More about this quote Tags: justice Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
We make our own criminals, and their crimes are congruent with the national culture we all share. It has been said that a people get the kind of political leadership they deserve. I think they also get the kinds of crime and criminals they themselves bring into being. —Margaret Mead More about this quote Tags: politics crime leadership Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
The civil-rights generation feels like this younger generation has no drive, is suicidal, especially black males. But think about this generation coming up with almost no jobs, access to firearms, thanks to the nra, and no hope. Imagine people saying you’ll never get the kind of jobs our parents had, and by the way, here’s some malt liquor and crack cocaine. —Robin D.G. Kelley More about this quote Tags: cocaine black america Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
For many black youths prison replaces the family as a primary source of socialization. —Joe Johnson More about this quote Tags: prison black experience Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
Racism, which leaves a shadow on one’s sense of accomplishment, can make one feel like a perpetual outsider. —Alvin Ailey More about this quote Tags: racism Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
That’s love. A part of what makes it so awesome is the level of real, true intimacy, and the risk you take by opening yourself up that way to someone who has the power to gut you. —Lauren Dane in Inside Out More about this quote Tags: love relationships intimacy Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
Science is nothing but developed perception, interpreted intent, common sense rounded out and minutely articulated. —George Santayana More about this quote Tags: perception science Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
The men the American public admire most extravagantly are the most daring liars; the men they detest most violently are those who try to tell them the truth. —H. L. Mencken More about this quote Tags: truth fame Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
People should not judge failed love affairs as failed experiences but as part of the growth process. Something does not have to end well for it to have been one of the most valuable experiences of a lifetime. —Ethel Person More about this quote Tags: life experience growth Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
The fate of love is that it always seems too little or too much. —Amelia Barr More about this quote Tags: love Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email
The effort to understand the universe is one of the very few things that lifts human life a little above the level of farce, and gives it some of the grace of tragedy. —Steven Weinberg More about this quote Tags: humanity life universe tragedy grace Permalink for this quote facebook twitter tumblr email