Leo Tolstoy

“ Nekhludoff put in.
“Or the removal,” persistently continued Ignatius Nikiforovitch, “of those depraved and savage people who threaten the existence of society.”
“That is just where the trouble is. Courts can do neither the one nor the other. Society has no means of doing it.” ”

“ The only aim of the courts is to preserve the existing state of things, and for this reason they persecute and kill all those who are above the common level and who wish to raise it as well as those who are below it. ”

“ And were it not for these journeys, we would not be sitting here as we are sitting now.”
“Prisons cannot secure our safety, because people are not imprisoned for life, but are released. On the contrary, these institutions are the greatest breeders of vice and corruption—­i. e., they increase the danger.” ”