“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.”
Help us to complete the source, original and additional information
Anaïs Nin278
writer of novels, short stories, and erotica 1903–1977Related quotes
Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) American politician, 26th president of the United States
As quoted in Art of Communicating Ideas (1952) by William Joseph Grace, p. 389
Disputed
Voltairine de Cleyre (1866–1912) American anarchist writer and feminist
The Economic Tendency of Freethought (1890)
Context: A man won't steal, ordinarily, unless that which he steals is something he cannot as easily get without stealing; in liberty the cost of stealing would involve greater difficulties than producing, and consequently he would not be apt to steal. But suppose a man steals. Today you go to a representative of that power which has robbed you of the earth, of the right of free contract of the means of exchange, taxes you for everything you eat or wear (the meanest form of robbery), — you go to him for redress from a thief!
Aaron Swartz (1986–2013) computer programmer and internet-political activist
UTI interview (2004)
Context: The law about what is stealing is very clear. Stealing is taking something away from someone so they cannot use it. There’s no way that making a copy of something is stealing under that definition.
If you make a copy of something, you’ll be prosecuted for copyright infringement or something similar — not larceny (the legal term for stealing). Stealing, like piracy and intellectual property, is another one of those terms cooked up to make us think of intellectual works the same way we think of physical items. But the two are very different.
You can’t just punish people because they took away a “potential sale”. Earthquakes take away potential sales, as do libraries and rental stores and negative reviews. Competitors also take away potential sales.
Frances Hardinge (1973) British children's writer
Source: A Face Like Glass
Anne-Thérèse de Marguenat de Courcelles, marquise de Lambert (1647–1733) writer from France
Source: An Essay on Old Age, 1732, p. 136
“2420. He wrongs not an old Man, who steals his Supper from him.”
Thomas Fuller (writer) (1654–1734) British physician, preacher, and intellectual
Compare Poor Richard's Almanack (1737) : He that steals the old man's supper, do's him no wrong.
Introductio ad prudentiam: Part II (1727), Gnomologia (1732)
“When a man steals your wife there is no better revenge than to let him keep her.”
Sacha Guitry (1885–1957) French dramatist and playwright
Book of Humorous Quotations, ed. Connie Robertson (1998), page 83
