“Voltaire was not the first or last man to convert a prison into a hall of fame. A prison is confining to the body, but whether it affects the mind, depends entirely upon the mind.”
Voltaire (1916)
Context: Voltaire was not the first or last man to convert a prison into a hall of fame. A prison is confining to the body, but whether it affects the mind, depends entirely upon the mind.
It was while in prison that he changed his name from the one his father gave him — Arouet — to the one he has made famous throughout all time — Voltaire. He said, "I was very unlucky under my first name. I want to see if this one will succeed any better."
Help us to complete the source, original and additional information
Clarence Darrow 70
American lawyer and leading member of the American Civil Li… 1857–1938Related quotes

“Men are not prisoners of fate, but only prisoners of their own minds.”
1930s, Address to the Governing Board of the Pan American Union (1939)
Context: There is no fatality which forces the Old World towards new catastrophe. Men are not prisoners of fate, but only prisoners of their own minds. They have within themselves the power to become free at any moment.

Political Science for Civil Services Main Examination (2010)

“A mind enclosed in language is in prison.”

“The world is a prison in which solitary confinement is preferable.”
Half-Truths and One-And-A-Half Truths (1976)

“If a captive mind is unaware of being in prison, it is living in error.”
Source: Simone Weil : An Anthology (1986), Human Personality (1943), p. 69
Context: If a captive mind is unaware of being in prison, it is living in error. If it has recognized the fact, even for the tenth of a second, and then quickly forgotten it in order to avoid suffering, it is living in falsehood. Men of the most brilliant intelligence can be born, live and die in error and falsehood. In them, intelligence is neither a good, nor even an asset. The difference between more or less intelligent men is like the difference between criminals condemned to life imprisonment in smaller or larger cells. The intelligent man who is proud of his intelligence is like a condemned man who is proud of his large cell.

“A pedestal is as much a prison as any small, confined space.”

“When Reality is a prison, Your mind can set you free.”

"A Farewell to the Vanities of the World" http://www.bartleby.com/331/467.html, lines 3–7. Author uncertain. Attributed to Henry Wotton and to Raleigh.
Attributed