Quotes about theft
Jeffrey Tucker -
A person who says “every person has a right to a decent education” may not actually mean “people should be robbed to support bad schools” or “all children should be forced into a prison-like building for 12 years.
Lysander Spooner -
If taxation without consent is not robbery, then any band of robbers have only to declare themselves a government, and all their robberies are legalized.
Jeffrey Eugenides - Middlesex
This whole country's stolen.
Ludwig von Mises - Liberalism
The law-abiding citizen by his labor serves both himself and his fellow man and thereby integrates himself peacefully into the social order. The robber, on the other hand, is intent, not on honest toil, but on the forcible appropriation of the fruits of others' labor.
Walter Isaacson - Steve Jobs
Hertzfeld recalled that Gates just sat there coolly, looking at Steve in the eye, before hurling back, in his squeaky voice, what became a classic zinger. "Well, Steve, I think there's more than one way of looking at it, I think it's more like we both had this rich neighbor named Xerox and I broke into his house to steal the TV set and found out that you had already stolen it.
Elena -
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but theft is a sin.
Patrick Rothfuss - The Wise Man's Fear
Looters become looted, while time and tide make us mercenaries all.
Stefan Molyneux -
You cannot have an agency that defends your property, which also has the right to violate your property rights at will. That's like hiring a bodyguard that you pay to beat you up randomly.
Albert Jay Nock -
It is easier to seize wealth than to produce it, and as long as the State makes the seizure of wealth a matter of legalized privilege, so long will the squabble for that privilege go on.
- Larken Rose -
The libertarian philosophy doesn't explain the best way to grow a vegetable garden!" Why do some people talk as if there should be one concept or principle which is all you'll ever need to know in order to handle everything in life? Right now the PRIMARY threat to humanity--by a factor of a zillion--is the belief in "authority." And the solution--the ONLY solution--is for people to escape that superstition. Questions like, "But how do we care for the poor?" are 100% logically IRRELEVANT to provi
Jeffrey Tucker -
No one wants their stuff stolen. No one wants their physical person harmed. If you understand the implications of those two truths, you can come to see the egregious moral and practical problems of a state-managed society.
Ayn Rand -
A society that robs an individual of the product of his effort, or enslaves him, or attempts to limit the freedom of his mind, or compels him to act against his own rational judgment ... is not, strictly speaking, a society, but a mob held together by institutionalized gang-rule.
Frédéric Bastiat -
The law has placed the collective force at the disposal of the unscrupulous who wish, without risk, to exploit the person, liberty, and property of others. It has converted plunder into a right, in order to protect plunder. And it has converted lawful defense into a crime, in order to punish lawful defense...When, then, does plunder stop? It stops when it becomes more painful and more dangerous than labor.
Larken Rose -
Having a Constitutional political party is a little like telling a car-jacker, "You're not allowed to do what you're doing! And if you don't stop it right now, we are going to ask you to order yourself to be nice! And if that doesn't work, we are going to try to elect a new car-jacker, who we hope will tell himself not to steal our cars! ... But at least we're not like those silly utopian anarchist kooks out there who refuse to work within the system for change! Those crazy people say there shou
Will Advise - Nothing is here...
If I did sales - my technique would be to hand-seal each deal with gourmet omelets, by Jarod Kintz's secret invisible recipe that I stole.
Stefan Molyneux -
Yes I pay taxes... There are no ethics in the face of coercion, that is blaming the victim. Focus on the man with the gun, not the man in the crosshairs trying to survive.
Margaret Atwood - The Handmaid's Tale
What should I take? Something that will not be missed. In the wood at midnight, a magic flower.
G.K. Chesterton - The Outline of Sanity
A pickpocket is obviously a champion of private enterprise. But it would perhaps be an exaggeration to say that a pickpocket is a champion of private property. The point about Capitalism and Commercialism, as conducted of late, is that they have really preached the extension of business rather than the preservation of belongings; and have at best tried to disguise the pickpocket with some of the virtues of the pirate.
Faisal Nawaz Maitlo -
When one person of whole nation fails to achieve his set goals, it influence the whole country.. That is why most of the countries are victim of terrorism, theft, snatching and etcetera
Mehmet Murat ildan -
Some steal, earn a lot of money, but lose their honour and become very poor; some work, earn a little money, but gain a good honour and become very rich!
Nomthandazo Tsembeni -
You can steal someone's Art,But not their Heart.You can immitate them,But you can never be like them.You can hurt them,But you cannot kill their will to love again.You can leave,But your space will always be filled by someone better than you.
Jean Lorrain - Monsieur De Phocas
The ring which you are holding, my friend, is identical to that one. I had it cut according to the model of the king's ring, and damascened in Spain. The original is still in the Escorial; it would have been pleasant to steal it, for I easily acquire the instincts of a thief when I am in a museum, and I always find objects which have a history - especially a tragic history - uniquely attractive. I am not an Englishman for nothing - but that which is easily enough accomplished in France is not at
Sharon Kay Penman - Falls the Shadow
Men kill for many reasons, they steal but for one-greed.
Johannes Kepler - Harmonies Of The World
Now because 18 months ago the first dawn, 3 months ago broad daylight but a very few days ago the full sun of the most highly remarkable spectacle has risen — nothing holds me back. I can give myself up to the sacred frenzy, I can have the insolence to make a full confession to mortal men that I have stolen the golden vessel of the Egyptians to make from them a tabernacle for my God far from the confines of the land of Egypt. If you forgive me I shall rejoice; if you are angry, I shall bear it;
Sarah Micklem - Firethorn
But I found signs of their trespass: a burned patch planted with a fistful of grain, a tree felled or stripped of fruit, a deer strung up in a snare. I never saw a poacher. They were too cunning, and for cause: the foresters would take a man's hands and eyes and leave him to the mercy of the wolves for such an offense. It was bad enough to steal the king's game, but snares were an abomnination. The gods abhor weapons that leave the hand, coward' weapons such as javelins, bows and arrows, slings.
Alexandra Bracken - In Time
It's always easier to take something than work for it...
Robin Wall Kimmerer - and the Teachings of Plants
Something is broken when the food comes on a Styrofoam tray wrapped in slippery plastic, a carcass of a being whose only chance at life was a cramped cage. That is not a gift of life; it is a theft.
Justin K. McFarlane Beau -
Greed is taking more than you need to feed. Avarice is hoarding, and stockpiling stolen, rotten goods.
Mokokoma Mokhonoana -
Never judge the deeds of a starving man while you’re on a full tummy.
David McCullough - and the Unique Child Who
A man who will steal for me will steal from me." Theodore Roosevelt, dismissing on the spot one of his best cowhands who was about to claim for his boss an unmarked animal.
Ashly Lorenzana -
99% of all addicts are liars and thieves. This might sound unfair and even close-minded, but it's the truth. There are some exceptions to the rules, but they are incredibly rare. Most people are no match for their addictions. They will be driven to do things they would normally never have considered all in the name of getting high. Sad, but true. So if you're thinking of trying drugs, keep in mind that all the people you will be dealing with are likely to steal from you and lie to you at your ow
Albert Jay Nock - the State
The positive testimony of history is that the State invariably had its origin in conquest and confiscation. No primitive State known to history originated in any other manner.
Ron Paul -
Government should never be able to do anything you can't do. If you can't steal from your neighbor, you can't send the government to steal for you.
Oscar Wilde - The Soul of Man Under Socialism
It is safer to beg than to take, but it is finer to take than to beg.
Louis-Ferdinand Céline - Journey to the End of the Night
We have got into the habit of admiring colossal bandits, whose opulence is revered by the entire world, yet whose existence, once we stop to examine it, proves to be one long crime repeated ad infinitum, but those same bandits are heaped with glory, honors, and power, their crimes are hallowed by the law of the land, whereas, as far back in history as the eye can see—and history, as you know is my business—everything conspires to show that a venial theft, especially of inglorious foodstuffs, suc
Truman Capote - In Cold Blood
Duntz asked Smith, 'Added up, how much money did you get from the Cutters?' 'Between forty and fifty dollars.
Henry Hazlitt - Economics in One Lesson: The Shortest & Surest Way to Understand Basic Economics
For every dollar that is spent on the (boondoggle) bridge a dollar will be taken away from taxpayers. If the bridge costs $1,000,000 the taxpayers will lose $1,000, 000. They will have that much taken away from them which they would otherwise have spent on the things they needed most.
Gioconda Belli - The Country Under My Skin: A Memoir of Love and War
Revolutionary law number one," someone said. "Capitalism has cheated us. Books are not to be bought, they are to be repossessed.""This is robbery," I said. "Let's not kid ourselves. And don't do that to me again. You scared me to death.""It's not robbery. Books are ideas. They should be able to circulate freely within society. At no price at all, or for pennies. Knowledge is universal. It belongs to all of us.
Robin Wall Kimmerer - and the Teachings of Plants
If time could run backward, like a film in reverse, we would see this mess reassemble itself into lush green hills and moss-covered ledges of limestone. The streams would run back up the hills to the springs and the salt would stay glittering in underground rooms.
Robin Wall Kimmerer - and the Teachings of Plants
The very earth that sustains us is being destroyed to fuel injustice. An economy that grants personhood to corporations but denies it to the more-than-human beings
Robin Wall Kimmerer - and the Teachings of Plants
Ruined land was accepted as the collateral damage of progress.
Robin Wall Kimmerer - and the Teachings of Plants
The creek that was once a fishery for Atlantic salmon, a swimming hole for kids, and a focal point of community life now runs as brown as chocolate milk. Allied Chemical and its successors deny any role in the formation of the mudboils. They claim it was an act of God. What kind of God would that be?
Robin Wall Kimmerer - and the Teachings of Plants
But I need to remember that the grief is the settlers’ as well. They too will never walk in a tallgrass prairie where sunflowers dance with goldfinches. Their children have also lost the chance to sing at the Maple Dance. They can’t drink the water either.
Robin Wall Kimmerer -
We have constructed an artifice, a Potemkin village of an ecosystem where we perpetrate the illusion that the things we consume have just fallen off the back of Santa’s sleigh, not been ripped from the earth. The illusion enables us to imagine that the only choices we have are between brands.
Frédéric Bastiat - The Law
I do not think that illegal plunder, such as theft or swindling — which the penal code defines, anticipates, and punishes — can be called socialism. It is not this kind of plunder that systematically threatens the foundations of society. Anyway, the war against this kind of plunder has not waited for the command of these gentlemen. The war against illegal plunder has been fought since the beginning of the world. Long before the Revolution of February 1848 — long before the appearance even of soc
Jefferson Smith - Strange Places
Wisdom cannot be stolen - it can only be shared.
Dave Eggers - A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
We are all feeding from each other, all the time, every day.
Stefan Molyneux -
Using coercion to drive charity is like using kidnapping to create love.
William Shakespeare - Othello
Good name in man and woman, dear my lord,Is the immediate jewel of their souls:Who steals my purse steals trash; ’tis something, nothing;’twas mine, ’tis his, and has been slave to thousands;But he that filches from me my good nameRobs me of that which not enriches him, And makes me poor indeed.
Amanda Lovelace - The Princess Saves Herself in this One
i used to thinki was brokenbecausei never oncespent mydaydreamsplucking swollen pomegranatesfrom someone else's tree.- then i learned that society is broken, not me.
Allen Wheelis - How People Change
One theft, however, does not make a thief . . Action which defines a man, describes his character, is action which has been repeated over and over and so has come in time to be a coherent and relatively independent mode of behavior. At first it may have been fumbling and uncertain, may have required attention, effort, will - as when first drives a car, first makes love, first robs a bank, first stands up against injustice. If one perseveres on any such course it comes in time to require less eff
Mark Helprin - Freddy and Fredericka
Nobody steals books except kleptomaniacs and university students. In most places you can leave a book on the street and come back for in the next day.
Ari Marmell - Lost Covenant
That's the funny thing about stealing money---it always seems to be the rich people who have the most of it.
Usman W. Chohan -
Policymakers cannot take the situation lightly, for at its worst, it speaks to “intergenerational inequity” – a breaking of the social contract between two generations.
Charles Frazier - Nightwoods
Where had he been? Drinking, obviously. Then she started cataloging all the ways he was worthless. On fool impulse, as his most potent available argument against Lily, Bud stuck his hands into his coat pockets and pulled out the many bundles of hundreds and threw them on the bedspread. If you were honest and stupid, you worked a couple of lifetimes for that kind of money, doled out by the hour in pocket-change amounts by asswipe bosses.
Joseph Conrad - Lord Jim
It was a dark story.
Ashly Lorenzana - Speed Needles
I know that my grandmother certainly did nothing to warrant my mother stealing all of her jewelry that my grandfather had given her as gifts over the years, just so she could peddle it for heroin on the street. Those were precious metals and gems that could never be replaced, and each one had a story behind it. A love story between my grandparents, that my mother flushed down a proverbial toilet so that she could shoot up, throw up and pass out.
Robin Wall Kimmerer - and the Teachings of Plants
Joanna Macy writes that until we can grieve for our planet we cannot love it—grieving is a sign of spiritual health. But it is not enough to weep for our lost landscapes; we have to put our hands in the earth to make ourselves whole again. Even a wounded world is feeding us. Even a wounded world holds us, giving us moments of wonder and joy. I choose joy over despair.
John Steinbeck - The Grapes of Wrath
Casy said, "Ol' Tom's house can't be more'n a mile from here. Ain't she over that third rise?"Sure," said Joad. "Less somebody stole it, like Pa stole it."Your pa stole it?"Sure, got it a mile an' a half east of here an' drug it. Was a family livin' there, an' they moved away. Grampa an' Pa an' my brother Noah like to took the whole house, but she wouldn't come. They only got part of her. That's why she looks so funny on one end. They cut her in two an' drug her over with twelve head of horses a
William Shakespeare - Love's Labour's Lost
They have been at a great feast of languages, and stolen the scraps.
Terry Pratchett - Reaper Man
He helped the Librarian up. There was a red glow in the ape's eyes. It had tried to steal his books. This was probably the best proof any wizard could require that the trolleys were brainless.
Justin Cronin - The City of Mirrors
Consider the species known as man. We lie, we cheat, we want what others have and take it; we make war upon each other and the earth; we harvest lives in multitude. We have mortgaged the planet and spent the cash on trifles.
Colson Whitehead - The Underground Railroad
And America, too, is a delusion, the grandest one of all. The white race believes--believes with all its heart--that it is their right to take the land. To kill Indians. Make war. Enslave their brothers. This nation shouldn't exist, if there is any justice in the world, for its foundations are murder, theft, and cruelty. Yet here we are.
Anaïs Nin -
The man who was once starved may revenge himself upon the world not by stealing just once, or by stealing only what he needs, but by taking from the world an endless toll in payment of something irreplaceable, which is the lost faith.