“The thief or swindler who has gained great wealth by his delinquency has a better chance than the small thief of escaping the rigorous penalty of the law.”

Source: The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899), p. 117

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "The thief or swindler who has gained great wealth by his delinquency has a better chance than the small thief of escapi…" by Thorstein Veblen?
Thorstein Veblen photo
Thorstein Veblen 41
American academic 1857–1929

Related quotes

Ilana Mercer photo

“According to the disease theory of delinquency, the arsonist has 'pyromania,' the thief 'kleptomania,’ and Bill Clinton is not promiscuous, but a ‘sex-addict.”

Ilana Mercer South African writer

"Mel's 'Malady,' Foxman's Fetish," http://www.ilanamercer.com/phprunner/public_article_list_view.php?editid1=131 WorldNetDaily.com, August 4, 2006.
2000s, 2006

Samuel Butler (poet) photo

“No Indian prince has to his palace
More followers than a thief to the gallows.”

Samuel Butler (poet) (1612–1680) poet and satirist

Canto I, line 273
Source: Hudibras, Part II (1664)

Scott Lynch photo
Vladimir Nabokov photo
Callimachus photo

“Set a thief to catch a thief.”

Callimachus (-310–-240 BC) ancient poet and librarian

Epigram 43; translation by Robert Allason Furness, from Poems of Callimachus (1931), p. 103
Epigrams

Markus Zusak photo
Thomas Fuller (writer) photo

“4106. Set a Thief to catch a Thief.”

Thomas Fuller (writer) (1654–1734) British physician, preacher, and intellectual

Introductio ad prudentiam: Part II (1727), Gnomologia (1732)

“He sets a thief to guard his purse
Who trusts a dial with his hours”

Robertson Davies (1913–1995) Canadian journalist, playwright, professor, critic, and novelist

The Golden Ass (1999)
Context: He sets a thief to guard his purse
Who trusts a dial with his hours
Or bids a sand-glass bleed away his nights,
His days, his loves, his pleasures and his powers.
The burthen of his years
Is Time's soft footfall, Time's soft
Falling
Through his joys and tears.

Terry Pratchett photo
Miguel de Cervantes photo

“If a governor comes out of his government rich, they say he has been a thief; and if he comes out poor, that he has been a noodle and a blockhead.”

Miguel de Cervantes (1547–1616) Spanish novelist, poet, and playwright

Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Part 2: Chapter LV

Related topics