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Detain Quotes

Words on detention, arrest, and the limits of authority.

This collection gathers detain quotes that move from everyday authority to the sober debate over anti-terrorism law, including how officials use powers like the UK's Schedule 7 to question people at borders. Voices here also examine the age-old question of who really has the arrest power in a free society.

On recovering my senses, I hastened to quit a place where I hoped there was nothing further to detain me. I first filled my pockets with gold, then fastened the strings of the purse round my neck, and concealed it...

Quotes by Adelbert von Chamisso

My thoughts are my company; I can bring them together, select them, detain them, dismiss them.

Quotes by Walter Savage Landor

Britain has a Terrorism Act, which has within it a portion called Schedule 7, which is quite unique. What it is is it gives officials the ability to detain people at the border as they go in or out or...

Quotes by Sarah Harrison

Our nation has invested millions of dollars in building safe, humane and, I may say, air-conditioned facilities to detain and prosecute the detainees at Guantanamo.

Quotes by Rodney Frelinghuysen

Ability Quotes

There are those who leave without our needing to detain them; we have said all there is to say.

Quotes by Richard Eyre

People who reach the top of the tree are only those who haven't got the qualifications to detain them at the bottom.

Quotes by Peter Ustinov

It should go without saying that regular citizens have no authority to arrest or detain anyone.

Quotes by Michelle Lujan Grisham

Are we going to go out and arrest and detain and deport 11 million people? Nobody would argue that that is what we are going to do, because we have never demonstrated the political will to do that, nor have...

Quotes by Luis Gutierrez

I do not - I never believed it's better to kill a terrorist than to detain him. We want to detain as many terrorists as possible so we can elicit the intelligence from them in the appropriate manner so that...

Quotes by John O. Brennan

Arrest Quotes

There's a real question of what the United States could do if we detain somebody out of Syria right now.

Quotes by Cory Gardner

Frequently Asked Questions

What kinds of detain quotes are collected on this page?
The collection ranges from a lighter, almost philosophical use of the word, like a mind gathering and dismissing its own thoughts, to hard policy statements from public figures. Several quotes deal directly with the legal question of who has the authority to detain someone.
Why do detain quotes often turn into debates about authority and arrest?
Detention is inseparable from the question of who holds legal power over another person, so many quotes on this theme naturally circle back to citizenship, policing, and the limits of private authority. One line here bluntly states that ordinary citizens have no right to arrest or detain anyone.
Do any quotes here address the policy debate over terrorism suspects?
Yes. One quote lays out a real and still-debated position that detaining and questioning a terrorism suspect for intelligence purposes is preferable to using lethal force. It is presented as one side of an ongoing security discussion rather than a settled conclusion.
What is Schedule 7, and why does a quote here mention it?
Schedule 7 is a real provision of the UK's Terrorism Act that lets officials question and detain travelers at the border. The quote included here describes that power factually, as an example of how anti-terrorism law intersects with everyday border crossings.
Why do people search for or share detain quotes?
Readers often land here while thinking through questions of civil liberties, law enforcement limits, or national security trade-offs, since the word sits at the crossroads of all three. Related themes are explored further in our country and better quotes collections.

Other quotes weigh whether it is better to detain and question a suspect than to use lethal force, a genuine policy tension explored from several angles. For related themes on power and civic duty, see our better and country quotes pages.