Unlocking Strength: A Powerful Collection of Inspirational Prison Quotes

"The hardest prison to escape, is your own mind."

- Bob Marley

"We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope."

- Martin Luther King, Jr.

"Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all the darkness."

- Desmond Tutu

"What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us."

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Every saint has a past, and every sinner has a future."

- Oscar Wilde

"There is no saint without a past, no sinner without a future."

- Augustine of Hippo

"Rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life."

- J.K. Rowling

"You are not defined by your worst moment."

- Bryan Stevenson

"Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall."

- Confucius

"Hate the sin, love the sinner."

- Mahatma Gandhi

"People with mental illnesses are dying on our streets. More than 350,000 are in jails and prisons. Most are people whose only real crime is they got sick."

- Pete Earley

"It is in the darkest hour that we must focus to see the light."

- Aristotle

"It is not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters."

- Epictetus

"Hardships often prepare ordinary people for an extraordinary destiny."

- C.S. Lewis

"I don't think I understood the full extent of the trauma experienced by people who churn through America's prisons until I began taking the time to listen to their stories."

- Michelle Alexander

"Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls."

- Khalil Gibran

"Jails and prisons are designed to break human beings, to convert the population into specimens in a zoo - obedient to our keepers, but dangerous to each other."

- Angela Davis

"What troubles me most about my lovely country is that its children are seldom taught that American freedom will vanish, if, when they grow up, and in the exercise of their duties as citizens, they insist that our courts and policemen and prisons be guided by divine or natural law."

- Kurt Vonnegut

"All emphasis in American prisons is on punishment, retribution, and disparagement, and almost none is on rehabilitation."

- Conrad Black

"If you strike at, imprison, or kill us, out of our prisons or graves we will still evoke a spirit that will thwart you, and perhaps, raise a force that will destroy you! We defy you! Do your worst!"

- James Connolly

"Prisons are out of public sight, and most often out of mind. But the vast majority of prisoners will at some point leave jail and rejoin our communities, which is why what happens inside matters to us all."

- David Lidington

"A feeling of self worth is the best accomplishment we can foster in our prisons."

- Yolanda King

"And I see the - you know, when I go to the juvenile detention centers and prisons, I see people who can't read now. And I know that when they leave those prisons and those detention centers, they're not going to be able to make it in our society."

- Walter Dean Myers

"Healing takes courage, and we all have courage, even if we have to dig a little to find it."

- Tori Amos

"Every adversity, every failure, every heartache carries with it the seed of an equal or greater benefit."

- Napoleon Hill

"You are not free the day you walk out of prison; you are free the day you walk out of ignorance."

- Matshona Dhliwayo

"Darkness is a prison from which only light escapes."

- Matshona Dhliwayo

"Dear Young Black Males… Juvenile Hall, Jail, and Prison are overflowing with young Black youth that look just like you. You’ve got to be willing to change the narrative of your life! Respect yourself by NOT going down that dead-end road. Enough of the countless excuses! Your life matters, right? So, dare to go against the norm, and do the RIGHT things. If not, you’ll find your life disrupted, destroyed, or ended. Is incarceration or death really worth it? Think it through… THINK IT THOUGH. The choice is yours young Kings, choose wisely! Consequences are VERY real."

- Stephanie Lahart

"Everyone has a prison they are stuck in! Words are the author's prison; the scenes, the actors 'prison; the fields, the peasants' prison; boats, fishermen's prison; love, lovers’ prison! Always remind yourself of the world outside of your own prison so that the prison knows its limits and doesn't make you a slave! Remember, the perfect prison is still a prison! Never put your freedom at the disposal of anything or anyone, because it belongs only to you!"

- Mehmet Murat ildan

"The strongest prison is the one where you are afraid to leave even though the door is open! There is no more heavy imprisonment than being afraid to be free!"

- Mehmet Murat ildan

"It is never too late to be what you might have been."

- George Eliot

"I'm suggesting that we abolish the social function of prisons."

- Angela Davis

"No one saves us but ourselves. No one can, and no one may."

- Buddha

"He who has a why to live can bear almost any how."

- Friedrich Nietzsche

"Do what you can, with what you have, where you are."

- Theodore Roosevelt

"If it is a crime to love the South, its cause and its President, then I am a criminal. I would rather lie down in this prison and die than leave it owing allegiance to a government such as yours."

- Belle Boyd

"You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream."

- C.S. Lewis

"Ideally, schools should be supportive environments for students. Unfortunately, zero-tolerance policies tend to funnel vulnerable students out of schools and into prisons, low-income jobs, and poverty."

- Kimberle Williams Crenshaw

"Nothing can be more abhorrent to democracy than to imprison a person or keep him in prison because he is unpopular. This is really the test of civilization."

- Winston Churchill

"While there is a lower class, I am in it, while there is a criminal element, I am of it, and while there is a soul in prison, I am not free."

- Eugene V. Debs

"Mistakes are always forgivable if one has the courage to admit them."

- Bruce Lee

"Forgiveness is for yourself because it frees you. It lets you out of that prison you put yourself in."

- Louise L. Hay

"Two men look out the same prison bars; one sees mud and the other stars."

- Beck

"Your present circumstances don’t determine where you can go; they merely determine where you start."

- Nibo Qubein

"When we pull back the curtain and take a look at what our 'colorblind' society creates without affirmative action, we see a familiar social, political, and economic structure - the structure of racial caste. The entrance into this new caste system can be found at the prison gate."

- Michelle Alexander

"Once we are destined to live out our lives in the prison of our mind, our duty is to furnish it well."

- Peter Ustinov

"The real power of the Buddha was that he had so much love. He saw people trapped in their notions of small separate self, feeling guilty or proud of that self, and he offered revolutionary teachings that resounded like a lion's roar, like a great rising tide, helping people to wake up and break free from the prison of ignorance."

- Thich Nhat Hanh

"The Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution abolished slavery other than in prisons - but it was a lie that you regained your freedom once you left the prison gates."

- Susan Burton

"It doesn't help to fight crime to put people in prison who are innocent."

- Stephen Breyer

"Place me behind prison walls - walls of stone ever so high, ever so thick, reaching ever so far into the ground. There is a possibility that in some way or another I may be able to escape. But stand me on that floor and draw a chalk line around me and have me give my word of honor never to cross it. Can I get out of that circle? No. Never."

- Karl G. Maeser

"One out of 100 citizens of the U.S. is going to prison, and it's not that the system is making criminals, it's that it's making criminals better criminals. We're breeding them like rats and it has to change."

- Val Kilmer

"Let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap if we do not give up."

- Galatians 6:9

"If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."

- 1 John 1:9

"Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go."

- Bible (Joshua 1:9)

"For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."

- Jeremiah 29:11

"The Lord is close to the brokenhearted."

- Psalm 34:18

"Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial."

- James 1:12

"Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you."

- 1 Peter 5:7

"Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy."

- Matthew 5:7

"He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds."

- Psalm 147:3

"The Lord is my light and my salvation – whom shall I fear?"

- Psalm 27:1

"But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength."

- Isaiah 40:31

"I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."

- Philippians 4:13

"The righteous may fall seven times, but they rise again."

- Proverbs 24:16

"Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good."

- Romans 12:21

"God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble."

- Psalm 46:1

"Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer."

- Romans 12:12

"Do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God."

- Isaiah 41:10

"Come to me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest."

- Matthew 11:28

"The Lord is a stronghold for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble."

- Psalm 9:9

"For God did not give us a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and self-discipline."

- 2 Timothy 1:7

"And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him."

- Romans 8:28

"My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness."

- 2 Corinthians 12:9

"The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit."

- Psalm 34:18

"Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love, for I have put my trust in you."

- Psalm 143:8

"You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in you."

- Isaiah 26:3

"Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me."

- Psalm 23:4

"Our hearts are all prison walls when we hold people captive with chains of unforgiveness."

- Ikechukwu Izuakor

"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing."

- Edmund Burke

"Prisons don't rehabilitate, they don't punish, they don't protect, so what the hell do they do?"

- Jerry Brown

"You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough."

- Mae West

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart."

- Proverbs 3:5

"With God, all things are possible."

- Matthew 19:26

"A mind enclosed in language is in prison."

- Simone Weil

"If love was a crime, God would encourage us all to go to prison."

- Matshona Dhliwayo

"All I did was pray to God, every day. In prison camp, the main prayer was, 'Get me home alive, God, and I'll seek you and serve you.' I came home, got wrapped up in the celebration, and forgot about the hundreds of promises I'd made to God."

- Louis Zamperini

"Every man is guilty of all the good he did not do."

- Voltaire

"Going to prison is like dying with your eyes open."

- Bernard Kerik

"You are as free as a prisoner in an open air prison."

- Bangambiki Habyarimana

"Intellectual despair results in neither weakness nor dreams, but in violence. It is only a matter of knowing how to give vent to one's rage; whether one only wants to wander like madmen around prisons, or whether one wants to overturn them."

- Georges Bataille

"I'm like thousands of women in South Africa who lost their men to cities and prisons... I stand defiant, tall and strong."

- Winnie Madikizela-Mandela

"In 1960, when I came out of prison as an ex-convict, I had more freedom under parolee supervision than there's available... in America right now."

- Merle Haggard

"Have not prisons - which kill all will and force of character in man, which enclose within their walls more vices than are met with on any other spot of the globe - always been universities of crime?"

- Peter Kropotkin

"We need to work together to embrace and repair our land, repair our power systems, and repair ourselves. It's time to stop building the shopping malls, the prisons, the stadiums, and other tributes to all of our collective failures."

- Majora Carter

"Probation is a less-well-known branch of our justice system, compared with, say, police and prisons, but that doesn't make it any less important. Hundreds of thousands of offenders each year are rehabilitated back into society by probation, which is crucial for the public's safety."

- Sadiq Khan

"Let's be clear about this, and let's be clear: we should not be creating incentives to house people in prison. We should be creating incentives instead to shut the revolving door into prison."

- Kamala Harris

"It's simple: put the money into schools and not prisons."

- Ty Dolla Sign

"None of my peers avoided prison. None of 'em."

- Nipsey Hussle

"So if you want a really effective criminal justice strategy, you don't build bigger prisons, you invest money in young kids - and you accept that it's going to take years to work through, but it's a more effective strategy."

- Keir Starmer

"I went down to the prison in Menard, thinking we were the vanguard, but down there, I got down on my knees and listened and learned from the people."

- Fred Hampton

"Mandela did go to prison, and he went in there as a burning revolutionary. But look what came out. Mandela let us down."

- Winnie Madikizela-Mandela

"I still remember, 40 years ago, when I was shackled and put in prison... Being an American citizen didn't mean a thing."

- Fred Korematsu

"The candle burns not for us, but for all those whom we failed to rescue from prison, who were shot on the way to prison, who were tortured, who were kidnapped, who 'disappeared'. That's what the candle is for."

- Peter Benenson

"The eyes of others our prisons; their thoughts our cages."

- Virginia Woolf

"Most prisons in this country are in the middle of nowhere, which makes it much easier for us all to throw those people away. Out of sight, out of mind."

- W. Kamau Bell

"Prisons are called 'correctional facilities' because the goal is to correct the behavior that sent people there."

- Charlie Kirk

"There came a situation in my life, to bribe or to be imprisoned, even if the second option was to be hanged, write it in my funeral, I had never opted corruption, bribe, and violence in my life."

- P.S. Jagadeesh Kumar

"Obligation is a prison. To get out of it, we must serve our time."

- Kamil Alvi

"If life is a prison, then some people are prisoners who have too much freedom."

- Tamerlan Kuzgov

"Nor is the world a stage or a prison. Simply, because there is no difference between the prisoner and the individual who is about to go on stage; they have no idea what to expect there. Both suffer from the disease of expectation."

- Mwanandeke Kindembo

"Prisons, far from providing a path to redemption, often exacerbate the very issues they aim to resolve."

- Rove Monteux

"Freedom is a prison for some prisoners."

- Tamerlan Kuzgov

"All I want is to be in a place I’m not trying to get out of."

- Richard Stark

"Destiny is the prison and chain of the ignorant. Understand that destiny like the water of the Nile: Water before the faithful, blood before the unbeliever."

- Muhammad Iqbal

"Dogmas are collective conceptual prisons. And the strange thing is that people love their prison cells because they give them a sense of security and a false sense of 'I know.' Nothing has inflicted more suffering on humanity than its dogmas."

- Eckhart Tolle

"And why do we, who say we oppose tyranny and demand freedom of speech, allow people to go to prison and be vilified, and magazines to be closed down on the spot, for suggesting another version of history."

- David Icke

"Jesus Christ came into my prison cell last night, and every stone flashed like a ruby."

- Samuel Rutherford

"My own life was filled with so much love and joy that when depression struck, it was like a prison door slamming shut and I was being placed in an isolation cell. No one else could possibly be feeling what I was. I hated my depression and all of its symptoms."

- Susan Polis Schutz

"If I'd written all the truth I knew for the past ten years, about 600 people - including me - would be rotting in prison cells from Rio to Seattle today. Absolute truth is a very rare and dangerous commodity in the context of professional journalism."

- Hunter S. Thompson

"He that is taken and put into prison or chains is not conquered, though overcome; for he is still an enemy."

- Thomas Hobbes

"One should respect public opinion insofar as is necessary to avoid starvation and keep out of prison, but anything that goes beyond this is voluntary submission to an unnecessary tyranny."

- Bertrand Russell

"Men simply copied the realities of their hearts when they built prisons."

- Richard Wright

"The men and women who work in our prisons are the unsung heroes of the criminal justice system."

- David Lidington

"Just about every year, Congress passes another crime bill - spending billions of dollars to build more prisons, to place more band-aids on society's scars."

- Carrie P. Meek

"The White House is the finest prison in the world."

- Harry S Truman

"Many of us are in are in our own prisons that aren't made of iron bars."

- Hill Harper

"The king is a prisoner in disguise. All he can enjoy are free meals like a prisoner getting the same pleasure in prison."

- Mwanandeke Kindembo

"From the other side of my prison, you are in a bigger prison than mine"

- P.S. Jagadeesh Kumar

"We shall fight against them, throw them in prisons and destroy them."

- Vladimir Putin

"When I made 'Real,' I recorded it over the phone in prison. I did it in a week. I had no idea what it was going to sound like. I couldn't even listen to the masters before it came out, I couldn't listen to 90% of the beats. I recorded 21 songs in seven days."

- Anuel AA

"Love is a prison."

- Serena Deena

"my dear in an idea, by an idea, living through in idea, we are our own prisoners ."

- litymunshi

"The difference between tax avoidance and tax evasion is the thickness of a prison wall."

- Denis Healey

"A Sunday school is a prison in which children do penance for the evil conscience of their parents."

- H. L. Mencken

"Prisons are fascinating places, especially when the inmates are educated white-collar types."

- John Grisham

"In the hands of the ego, marriage is a prison. It is exclusive. It is a place where people are constantly reminded of their failures and limited by the energies of another person. It is rife with judgment and blame."

- Marianne Williamson

"For we walk by faith, not by sight."