Prisoner Quotes

• We are all here for some special reason. Stop being a prisoner of your past. Become the architect of your future.

  Robin Sharma

  Life, Positive, Time

  Robin Sharma (2016). “The Robin Sharma Pack”, p.214, Jaico Publishing House

  138 Copy quote

  Show source

• To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover that the prisoner was you.

  Lewis B. Smedes

  Inspirational, Happiness, Inspiring

  86 Copy quote

• A prisoner of war is a man who tries to kill you and fails, and then asks you not to kill him.

  Winston Churchill

  Funny, Sarcastic, Laughter

  89 Copy quote

• Ester asked why people are sad. "That’s simple," says the old man. "They are the prisoners of their personal history. Everyone believes that the main aim in life is to follow a plan. They never ask if that plan is theirs or if it was created by another person. They accumulate experiences, memories, things, other people's ideas, and it is more than they can possibly cope with. And that is why they forget their dreams.

  Paulo Coelho

  Life, Dream, Memories

  33 Copy quote

• Freedom of mind is the real freedom. A person whose mind is not free though he may not be in chains, is a slave, not a free man. One whose mind is not free, though he may not be in prison, is a prisoner and not a free man. One whose mind is not free though alive, is no better than dead. Freedom of mind is the proof of one's existence.

  B. R. Ambedkar

  Real, Men, Mind

  "Political Science for Civil Services Main Examination". Book by N.D. Arora, 2010.

  82 Copy quote

  Show source

• The widespread abuse of prisoners is a virtually foolproof indication that politicians are trying to impose a system--whether political, religious or economic--that is rejected by large numbers of the people they are ruling. Just as ecologists define ecosystems by the presence of certain "indicator species" of plants and birds, torture is an indicator species of a regime that is engaged in a deeply anti-democratic project, even if that regime happens to have come to power through elections.

  Naomi Klein

  Religious, Numbers, Ecosystems

  Naomi Klein (2010). “The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism”, p.156, Macmillan

  15 Copy quote

  Show source

• Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison.

  Henry David Thoreau

  War, Men, History

  Civil Disobedience (1849)

  11 Copy quote

  Show source

• In prison, those things withheld from and denied to the prisoner become precisely what he wants most of all.

  Eldridge Cleaver

  Jail, Want, Prison

  Eldridge Cleaver (2015). “Target Zero: A Life in Writing”, p.42, Macmillan

  11 Copy quote

  Show source
• 

  After climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb.

  Nelson Mandela

  Inspirational, Motivational, Inspiring

  Twitter post from Oct 27, 2015

  99 Copy quote

  Show source

• Better to die fighting for freedom then be a prisoner all the days of your life.

  Bob Marley

  Encouraging, Memorial Day, Freedom

  "Biography / Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

  329 Copy quote

  Show source

• I never saw a man who looked With such a wistful eye Upon that little tent of blue Which prisoners call the sky.

  Oscar Wilde

  Eye, Men, Blue

  The Ballad of Reading Gaol pt. 1, st. 3 (1898)

  26 Copy quote

  Show source

• Men are not prisoners of fate, but only prisoners of their own minds.

  Franklin D. Roosevelt

  Inspirational, Motivational, Success

  Roosevelt, Franklin D. (1941). “Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: F.D. Roosevelt, 1939, Volume 8”, p.242, Best Books on

  30 Copy quote

  Show source

• I asked a man in prison once how he happened to be there and he said he had stolen a pair of shoes. I told him if he had stolen a railroad he would be a United States Senator.

  Mother Jones

  Men, Shoes, Economic Inequality

  "Autobiography of Mother Jones" by Mary Harris Jones, edited by Mary Field Parton, (p. 46), 2004.

  125 Copy quote

  Show source

• I prayed to dispel my fear, until suddenly, and I do not know how the idea came to me, I began to pray for others. I prayed for everyone who came into my thoughts - - people with whom I had traveled, those who had been in prison with me, my school friends of years ago. I do not know how long I continued my prayer, but this I do know - - my fear was gone! Interceding for others had released me!

  Corrie Ten Boom

  Prayer, Fear, School

  Corrie ten Boom, Judith Couchman (2003). “Anywhere He Leads Me”

  313 Copy quote

  Show source

• A cement mixer collided with a prison van on the Kingston Pass. Motorists are asked to be on the lookout for 16 hardened criminals.

  Ronnie Corbett

  Criminals, Prison, Funny Jokes

  62 Copy quote

• Prison life, fortunately, I spent a lot of years, about 18 years with other prisoners, and, as I say, they enriched your soul.

  Nelson Mandela

  Years, Soul, Prison Life

  6 Copy quote

• The line that connects the bombing of civilian populations to the mountain removed by strip mining ... to the tortured prisoner seems to run pretty straight. We're living, it seems, in the culmination of a long warfare - warfare against human beings, other creatures and the Earth itself.

  Wendell Berry

  Running, Long, Mountain

  Wendell Berry's Commencement Address at Lindsey Wilson College in Columbia, Kentucky, May 14, 2005.

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• 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

  Inspiring, Inspiration, Compassion

  "Long Walk to Freedom". Book by Nelson Mandela, 1995.

  60 Copy quote

  Show source

• Everyone is a prisoner of his own experiences. No one can eliminate prejudices - just recognize them.

  Edward R. Murrow

  Honesty, Hate, Integrity

  Television broadcast, December 31, 1955.

  16 Copy quote

  Show source

• In the final choice a soldier's pack is not so heavy as a prisoner's chains.

  Dwight D. Eisenhower

  Strength, Peace, War

  Eisenhower, Dwight D. (1960). “Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1953”, p.5, Best Books on

  11 Copy quote

  Show source

• I am a prisoner of a gaudy and unlivable present, where all forms of human society have reached an extreme of their cycle and there is no imagining what new forms they may assume.

  Italo Calvino

  May, Assuming, Form

  Italo Calvino (2010). “Invisible Cities”, p.123, Random House

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• An artist must never be a prisoner. Prisoner? An artist should never be a prisoner of himself, prisoner of style, prisoner of reputation, prisoner of success, etc.

  Henri Matisse

  Art, Style, Etc

  Henri Matisse (2011). “Matisse: Drawing Life”, Queensland Art Gallery

  9 Copy quote

  Show source
• 

  For to be free is not merely to cast off one's chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.

  Nelson Mandela

  Inspirational, Positive, Inspiring

  Nelson Mandela (2011). “Nelson Mandela By Himself: The Authorised Book of Quotations”, p.158, Pan Macmillan

  300 Copy quote

  Show source
• 

  Every time you are tempted to react in the same old way, ask if you want to be a prisoner of the past or a pioneer of the future.

  Deepak Chopra

  Inspirational, Inspiring, Break Up

  FaceBook post by Deepak Chopra from Dec 16, 2011

  115 Copy quote

  Show source

• We are products of our past, but we don't have to be prisoners of it.

  Rick Warren

  Change, Past, Growth

  Twitter post from Oct 15, 2010

  97 Copy quote

  Show source