Abscond. To “move” in a mysterious way, commonly with the property of another.
—Ambrose Bierce (1842–1913) American Short-story Writer, Journalist
He threatens many that hath injured one.
—Ben Jonson (1572–1637) English Dramatist, Poet, Actor
War should be made a crime, and those who instigate it should be punished as criminals.
—Charles Evans Hughes (1862–1948) American Elected Rep, Judge, Politician, Lawyer, Professor
Today more Americans are imprisoned for drug offenses than for property crimes
—George Will (b.1941) American Columnist, Journalist, Writer
The study of crime begins with the knowledge of oneself. All that you despise, all that you loathe, all that you reject, all that you condemn and seek to convert by punishment springs from you.
—Henry Miller (1891–1980) American Novelist
It is certain that stealing nourishes courage, strength, skill, tact, in a word, all the virtues useful to a republican system and consequently to our own. Lay partiality aside, and answer me: is theft, whose effect is to distribute wealth more evenly, to be branded as a wrong in our day, under our government which aims at equality? Plainly, the answer is no.
—Marquis de Sade (1740–1814) French Political leader, Revolutionary, Novelist, Poet, Critic
The thief. Once committed beyond a certain point he should not worry himself too much about not being a thief any more. Thieving is God’s message to him. Let him try and be a good thief.
—Samuel Butler
Crime seems to change character when it crosses a bridge or a tunnel. In the city, crime is taken as emblematic of class and race. In the suburbs, though, it’s intimate and psychological—resistant to generalization, a mystery of the individual soul.
—Barbara Ehrenreich (b.1941) American Social Critic, Essayist
Of all the adult male criminals in London, not two in a hundred have entered upon a course of crime who have lived an honest life up to the age of twenty.—Almost all who enter on a course of crime do so between the ages of eight and sixteen.
—Anthony Ashley Cooper, 1st Earl of Shaftesbury (1621–83) British Statesman
He 63 ways of getting money, the most common, most honorable ones being staling, thieving, and robbing.
—Francois Rabelais (1494–1553) French Humanist, Satirist
Fear follows crime, and is its punishment.
—Voltaire (1694–1778) French Philosopher, Author
Crimes lead into one another.—They who are capable of being forgers, are capable of being incendiaries.
—Edmund Burke (1729–97) British Philosopher, Statesman
Great thieves punish little ones.
—Common Proverb
Every rascal is not a thief, but every thief is a rascal.
—Aristotle (384BCE–322BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher, Scholar
Crime and bad lives are the measure of a State’s failure, all crime in the end is the crime of the community.
—H. G. Wells (1866–1946) English Novelist, Historian, Social Thinker
Crime is a product of social excess
—Vladimir Lenin (1870–1924) Russian Revolutionary Leader
The contagion of crime is like that of the plague.—Criminals collected together corrupt each other.—They are worse than ever when, at the termination of their punishment, they return to society.
—Napoleon I (1769–1821) Emperor of France
A thief believes everybody steals.
—E. W. Howe (1853–1937) American Novelist, Editor
For the credit of virtue it must be admitted that the greatest evils which befall mankind are caused by their crimes.
—Francois de La Rochefoucauld (1613–80) French Writer
If crime fighters fight crime and fire fighters fight fire, what do freedom fighters fight?
—George Carlin (1937–2008) American Stand-up Comedian
There is no den in the wide world to hide a rogue.—Commit a crime and the earth is made of glass.—Commit a crime, and it seems as if a coat of snow fell on the ground, such as reveals in the woods the track of every partridge, and fox, and squirrel.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
Growing old is like being increasingly penalized for a crime you haven’t committed.
—Anthony Powell (1905–2000) English Novelist, Memoirist
Locks keep out only the honest.
—Hebrew Proverb
Every crime will bring remorse to the man who committed it
—Juvenal (c.60–c.136 CE) Roman Poet
He who does not prevent a crime when he can, encourages it.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca) (c.4 BCE–65 CE) Roman Stoic Philosopher, Statesman, Tragedian
One crime is everything; two nothing.
—Dorothee Luzy Dotinville (1747–1830) French Dancer, Actress
Life is nothing but a competition to be the criminal rather than the victim.
—Bertrand A. Russell (1872–1970) British Philosopher, Mathematician, Social Critic
No punishment has ever possessed enough power of deterrence to prevent the commission of crimes. On the contrary, whatever the punishment, once a specific crime has appeared for the first time, its reappearance is more likely than its initial emergence could ever have been.
—Hannah Arendt (1906–75) German-American Philosopher, Political Theorist
The secret of a great success for which you are at a loss to account is a crime that has never been found out, because it was properly executed.
—Honore de Balzac (1799–1850) French Novelist
There is a heroism in crime as well as in virtue. Vice and infamy have their altars and their religion.
—William Hazlitt (1778–1830) English Essayist
Almost all crime is due to the repressed desire for aesthetic expression.
—Evelyn Waugh (1903–66) British Novelist, Essayist, Biographer
Locks keep out only the honest.
—Yiddish Proverb
We are the people our parents warned us about.
—Jimmy Buffett (b.1946) American Musician, Author
Whenever man commits a crime heaven finds a witness.
—Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton (1803–73) British Novelist, Poet, Politician
The real significance of crime is in its being a breach of faith with the community of mankind
—Joseph Conrad (1857–1924) Polish-born British Novelist
Don’t steal. The government hates competition.
—Anonymous
For centuries the death penalty, often accompanied by barbarous refinements, has been trying to hold crime in check; yet crime persists. Why? Because the instincts that are warring in man are not, as the law claims, constant forces in a state of equilibrium.
—Albert Camus (1913–60) Algerian-born French Philosopher, Dramatist, Essayist, Novelist, Author
Poverty may be the mother of crime, but lack of good sense is the father
—Jean de La Bruyere (1645–96) French Satiric Moralist, Author
The wrongdoer is more unfortunate than the man wronged.
—Democritus (c.460–c.370 BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher
Set a thief to catch a thief.
—Common Proverb
Every society gets the kind of criminal it deserves. What is also true is that every community gets the kind of law enforcement it insists on.
—John F. Kennedy (1917–63) American Head of State, Journalist
The villainy you teach me I will execute ; and it shall go hard but I will better the instruction.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
The unforgivable crime is soft hitting. Do not hit at all if it can be avoided; but never hit softly.
—Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) American Head of State, Political leader, Historian, Explorer
He who commits injustice is ever made more wretched than he who suffers it.
—Plato (428 BCE–347 BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher, Mathematician, Educator
The faults of the burglar are the qualities of the financier.
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish Playwright
There are crimes which become innocent and even glorious through their splendor, number and excess.
—Francois de La Rochefoucauld (1613–80) French Writer
Poverty is the parent of revolution and crime.
—Aristotle (384BCE–322BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher, Scholar
A first impulse was never a crime.
—Pierre Corneille (1606–84) French Poet, Dramatist
Crimes, like virtues, are their own rewards.
—George Farquhar (1677–1707) Irish Dramatist
Life is a sheet of paper white, Whereon each one of us may write His word or two, and then comes night. Greatly begin! Though thou have time But for a line, be that sublime—Not failure, but low aim, is crime.
—James Russell Lowell (1819–91) American Poet, Critic