A burglar who respects his art always takes his time before taking anything else.
—O. Henry (William Sydney Porter) (1862–1910) American Writer of Short Stories
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
He threatens many that hath injured one.
—Ben Jonson (1572–1637) English Dramatist, Poet, Actor
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
Many a man is saved from being a thief by finding everything locked up.
—E. W. Howe (1853–1937) American Novelist, Editor
He that is robbed, not wanting what is stolen, him not know t, and he’s not robbed at all.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
We cannot be sure that we ought not to regard the most criminal country as that which in some aspects possesses the highest civilization.
—Havelock Ellis (1859–1939) British Essayist, Physician
There are crimes which become innocent and even glorious through their splendor, number and excess.
—Francois de La Rochefoucauld (1613–80) French Writer
Crime is naught but misdirected energy.
—Emma Goldman (1869–1940) Lithuanian-American Anarchist, Feminist
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 is terribly revealing. Try and vary your methods as you will, your tastes, your habits, your attitude of mind, and your soul is revealed by your actions.
—Agatha Christie (1890–1976) British Novelist, Short-Story Writer, Playwright
Almost all crime is due to the repressed desire for aesthetic expression.
—Evelyn Waugh (1903–66) British Novelist, Essayist, Biographer
Crime when it succeeds is called virtue.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca) (c.4 BCE–65 CE) Roman Stoic Philosopher, Statesman, Tragedian
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
We are often deterred from crime by the disgrace of others.
—Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus) (65–8 BCE) Roman Poet
Crime is a fact of the human species, a fact of that species alone, but it is above all the secret aspect, impenetrable and hidden. Crime hides, and by far the most terrifying things are those which elude us.
—Georges Bataille (1897–1962) French Essayist, Intellectual
The wrongdoer is more unfortunate than the man wronged.
—Democritus (c.460–c.370 BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher
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
A crime persevered in a thousand centuries ceases to be a crime, and becomes a virtue. This is the law of custom, and custom supersedes all other forms of law.
—Mark Twain (1835–1910) American Humorist
Many commit the same crime with a different destiny; one bears a cross as the price of his villainy, another wears a crown.
—Juvenal (c.60–c.136 CE) Roman Poet
Abscond. To “move” in a mysterious way, commonly with the property of another.
—Ambrose Bierce (1842–1913) American Short-story Writer, Journalist
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
All criminals turn preachers under the gallows.
—Common Proverb
One crime is everything; two nothing.
—Dorothee Luzy Dotinville (1747–1830) French Dancer, Actress
Great thieves punish little ones.
—Common Proverb
He 63 ways of getting money, the most common, most honorable ones being staling, thieving, and robbing.
—Francois Rabelais (1494–1553) French Humanist, Satirist
The man who is admired for the ingenuity of his larceny is almost always rediscovering some earlier form of fraud. The basic forms are all known, have all been practiced. The manners of capitalism improve. The morals may not.
—John Kenneth Galbraith (1908–2006) Canadian-Born American Economist
Small crimes always precede great ones. Never have we seen timid innocence pass suddenly to extreme licentiousness.
—Jean Racine (1639–1699) French Dramatist
Crime generally punishes itself.
—Oliver Goldsmith (1730–74) Irish Novelist, Playwright, Poet
Want of money and the distress of a thief can never be alleged as the cause of his thieving, for many honest people endure greater hardships with fortitude. We must therefore seek the cause elsewhere than in want of money, for that is the miser’s passion, not the thief s.
—William Blake (1757–1827) English Poet, Painter, Printmaker
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