If poverty is the mother of crimes, want of sense is the father of them.
—Jean de La Bruyere (1645–96) French Satiric Moralist, Author
Great thieves punish little ones.
—Common Proverb
There is a new billboard outside Time Square. It keeps an up-to minute count of gun-related crimes in New York. Some goofball is going to shoot someone just to see the numbers move.
—David Letterman (b.1947) American Television Talk Show Host
The world of crime is a last refuge of the authentic, uncorrupted, spontaneous event.
—Daniel J. Boorstin (1914–2004) American Historian, Academic, Attorney
From a single crime know the nation.
—Virgil (70–19 BCE) Roman Poet
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, Novelist
Many a man is saved from being a thief by finding everything locked up.
—E. W. Howe (1853–1937) American Novelist, Editor
All criminals turn preachers under the gallows.
—Common Proverb
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
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 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
There is no crime of which I do not deem myself capable.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
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
Today more Americans are imprisoned for drug offenses than for property crimes.
—George Will (b.1941) American Columnist, Author, Commentator
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 are often deterred from crime by the disgrace of others.
—Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus) (65–8 BCE) Roman Poet
The greatest crime in the world is not developing your potential. When you do what you do best, you are helping not only yourself, but the world.
—Roger Williams (1603–83) English-Born American Baptist Theologian
One crime is everything; two nothing.
—Dorothee Luzy Dotinville (1747–1830) French Dancer, Actress
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
Abscond. To “move” in a mysterious way, commonly with the property of another.
—Ambrose Bierce (1842–1913) American Short-story Writer, Journalist
Crime is naught but misdirected energy.
—Emma Goldman (1869–1940) Lithuanian-American Anarchist, Feminist
He reminds me of the man who murdered both his parents, and then when the sentence was about to be pronounced, pleaded for mercy on the grounds that he was orphan.
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–65) American Head of State
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
How vainly shall we endeavor to repress crime by our barbarous punishment of the poorer class of criminals so long as children are reared in the brutalizing influences of poverty, so long as the bite of want drives men to crime.
—Henry George (1839–97) American Political Economist, Journalist
Crime when it succeeds is called virtue.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca) (c.4 BCE–65 CE) Roman Stoic Philosopher, Statesman, Tragedian
He 63 ways of getting money, the most common, most honorable ones being staling, thieving, and robbing.
—Francois Rabelais (1494–1553) French Humanist, Satirist
All, all is theft, all is unceasing and rigorous competition in nature; the desire to make off with the substance of others is the foremost—the most legitimate—passion nature has bred into us and, without doubt, the most agreeable one.
—Marquis de Sade (1740–1814) French Writer
He threatens many that hath injured one.
—Ben Jonson (1572–1637) English Dramatist, Poet, Actor
The wrongdoer is more unfortunate than the man wronged.
—Democritus (c.460–c.370 BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher
Crimes, like virtues, are their own rewards.
—George Farquhar (1677–1707) Irish Dramatist
Leave a Reply