Ordinary culture , on prairie lands, is not what is meant by the term in the Eastern or Middle States.
— from The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 07, No. 43, May, 1861 A Magazine of Literature, Art, and Politics by Various

The answer is that the prison doesn’t in fact reform the wrong-doer; that good behavior under the conditions of prison life is no assurance of the intention or capacity of the prisoner to lead an honest and useful life after his release, and that the inspectors or other paroling authority have no other guide to go by in determining the inmates’ fitness for a life of freedom than his prison record.
— from The Journal of Prison Discipline and Philanthropy 1919 (New Series, No. 58) by Pennsylvania Prison Society

Nay, rather, when wretchedness, and depravity, and backsliding cross our path, let it not be with the bitter taunt or the ironical retort that we bid them away.
— from The Mind of Jesus by John R. (John Ross) Macduff

So you see, for that class of people, language is not language—it is nothing.”
— from The city of the discreet by Pío Baroja

Nevertheless, it was afterward enforced on several occasions, and, during the whole century of penal laws, it not only remained on the statute-book ad terrorem, but whatever clergyman disregarded it could only expect to be treated with its utmost rigor.
— from The Irish Race in the Past and the Present by Augustus J. Thébaud

Elizabeth Fry as early as 1813 brought the conditions of prison life into notice, and reforms were instituted.
— from Wives of the Prime Ministers, 1844-1906 by Lucy Masterman