Jack Abbott quotes

Jack Abbott was an American author and convicted criminal, known for his prison writings and correspondence with literary figures. His book "In the Belly of the Beast" provided a raw and controversial insight into life behind bars. He became infamous after his release when he committed murder shortly thereafter. Here are 7 of his quotes:

Most important, you learn never to trust a man, even if he seems honest and sincere. You learn how men deceive themselves and how impossible it is to help them without injuring yourself. (Jack Abbott)
This world is nothing. An illusion. Death is the release. View quote
Jack Abbott
I feel that if I ever did adjust to prison, I could by that alone never adjust to society. View quote
Jack Abbott
The intelligence recedes, no more a tool of learning - because knowledge is based on experience - but a tool of the outside world it is deprived of knowing. It tries to contact other minds by telepathy; it becomes the Ancestor. Words and Numbers come to hold mystic significance: they were invented by some arcane magic older than man. The line between the word and the thing vanishes; the intervals of numbers in infinity collapse with infinity. View quote
Jack Abbott
Even European philosophers have taken notice that most of what we take for knowledge is nothing but bias and prejudice. View quote
Jack Abbott
The mind does not regulate its own condition. Mental depression, for example, is a state of mind caused by the body. In a cell in the hole it only seems that there is a separation of mind and body - in fact, the body's condition (of deprivation of sensations; experiences, functions, and so on) controls the moods of the mind more than in any other situation I can think of. View quote
Jack Abbott
But a kind of genius can come of this deprivation of sensation, of experience. It has been mistaken as naïve intelligence, when in fact it is empty intelligence, pure intelligence. The composition of the mind is altered. Its previous cultivation is disintegrated and it has greater access to the brain, the body: it is Supersanity. Learning is turned inside out. You have to start from the top and work your way down. You must study mathematical theory before simple arithmetic; theoretical physics before applied physics; anatomy, you might say, before you can walk. View quote
Jack Abbott